Josh Hazlewood tops bowling rankings; Ishan Kishan enters top 10 of batting rankings in T20Is

ICC released an update of the T20I rankings on June 15.

Australia bowler Josh Hazlewood became the unlikeliest no.1 position holder in the latest update of the ICC T20I rankings, which also saw India’s Ishan Kishan entering the top 10 of the batting rankings, becoming the lone Indian to do so.

Hazlewood finished as the leading wicket-taker with six scalps during Australia's recent T20 series against Sri Lanka and that helped him go past South Africa's Tabraiz Shamsi and England's Adil Rashid and claim the top spot in the ICC T20I rankings update on June 15, 2022.

Before Hazlewood, the last Australian bowler to take the No.1 T20I spot was Nathan Bracken in 2008. Hazlewood hadn’t played any T20Is for Australia for more than four years between 2016 and 2020, but recently became part of their 2021 T20 World Cup-winning squad.

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India quick Bhuvneshwar Kumar is just near to the top 10 in 11th place after his excellent bowling form in the opening three T20Is of the series against South Africa, which include a haul of 4/13, and saw him rise to a career-best rating of 635 rating points.  

In the batting department, Ishan Kishan is the lone Indian in the top 10 rankings, entering at no.7 with 689 rating points. This comes after his scores of 76, 34, and 54 from the opening three T20Is against South Africa, helping him jump 68 spots.

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The T20I batting rankings are led by Pakistan’s Babar Azam, with Mohammad Rizwan at the no.2 spot.

In the all-rounder’s list, Glenn Maxwell of Australia moved to the no.4 spot, while Mohammad Nabi remains the top-ranked T20I all-rounder.

(ICC inputs)