Two consecutive centuries in the final two T20Is for India against South Africa in Centurion and Johannesburg have pushed Tilak Verma to the third spot in the ICC rankings of the shortest format. He is now just behind the topper of the table, the left-handed Australian batter Travis Head, and the wicket-keeper batter of England, Phil Salt.
The T20I captain of the Blue Brigade, Suryakumar Yadav, stands at the number four position after his rare poor returns at the Rainbow Nation. But the biggest positive news for the Indian side in the ICC ranking is the return of Hardik Pandya to the top spot among the T20I all-rounders.
The Baroda all-rounder overtakes the England dasher Liam Livingston and Nepal’s Dipendra Singh Airee at the top of the T20I all-rounder’s chart on the back of his spectacular contributions with both bat and ball. It’s the second time Pandya has held the number one ranking all-rounder spot, thanks to his consistency since the T20 World Cup 2024.
Massive gains for India in latest ICC T20I rankings
The wicket-keeper batter of the side, Sanju Samson, who also was the opener for the Blue Brigade in the series and notched up centuries in the first and later in the final game of the series in Durban and Johannesburg, has climbed up 17 spots in the ICC rankings to 22nd spot of the list of T20I batters.
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Sri Lanka faced New Zealand in a two-match T20I series and squared it up with a 1-1 margin. Kusal Mendis has gone up three spots to equal the 12th place in the ICC rankings, while the wicket-keeper batter of the West Indies side, Shai Hope, has gone 16 places north.
Another premier all-rounder of the Australian side, Marcus Stoinis, has improved his rankings by ten spots following his recent bashing half-century against Pakistan in Hobart, which saw them celebrating the 0-3 clean sweep over the Green Brigade.
The duo of the Aussies, Adam Zampa and Nathan Ellis, are the biggest movers in the updated ICC T20I ranking bowlers, with the seamer Arshdeep Singh gaining three places to move to the ninth and a career-high rating following the efforts in South Africa.
Axar Patel, the spin all-rounder for the Blue Brigade, has gone ten spots up to claim the 13th rank in the T20I bowler’s rankings, while Jofra Archer has broken into the top 20 ICC rankings.
Sri Lanka has earned a 2-0 series victory over the Kiwis, while the last one was washed out due to rain. The mystery spinner of the home side, Maheesh Theekshana, has improved six placed to the sixth overall in the ODI ranking list thanks to his five wickets across the three games.
The captain for the Blackcaps in the series, Mitchell Santner, has walked into the top 20, while the wicket-keeper veteran batter for Afghanistan, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, has reached seven in the table. The Sri Lanka captain for the white-ball side, Charith Asalanka, has dropped down to 11 to be out of the top 10 list.
Mendis and Avishka Fernando have gone up in the ODI rankings for the batters. The former has gone up nine spots in the ICC rankings, while the opening batter has made five steps north. The right-handed opening batter of the Kiwis, Will Young, has moved 12 spots up to equal 22nd among the huge improvements for the New Zealand side.