Virat Kohli has stormed back into the top 10 of the ICC Players rankings for T20I batters after his unbeaten half-century in India’s T20 World Cup 2022 win over Pakistan.
Kohli, who smashed 82 not out off 53 balls, jumped five spots to attain ninth position in the updated rankings, released on Wednesday (October 26).
However, India's Suryakumar Yadav has lost his second spot as New Zealand's Devon Conway made gains in the batters' chart. The southpaw took the Australian attack to the cleaners during his 58-ball 92* in the Super 12 opener at SCG, which helped him advance three places.
Despite his failure against India, Mohammad Rizwan continues to occupy the top position while Suryakumar now holds the third spot, followed by Babar Azam and Aiden Markram to complete the top five.
The shortest format also got a new No.1 bowler as Afghanistan's Rashid Khan edged past Australia's Josh Hazlewood for the top spot.
Rashid picked the key wicket of young gun Harry Brook and finished with tidy figures of 1/17 from his four overs as Afghanistan opened their T20 World Cup campaign with a five-wicket loss to England.
While Hazlewood has three wickets to his name from two T20 World Cup matches so far, he has proven to be expensive during spells against New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
In the bowling rankings, Sri Lanka spinner Wanindu Hasaranga has dropped three places to sixth while England seamer Sam Curran leapfrogged eight spots to eighth following his five-wicket haul (5/10) against Afghanistan.
Veteran India seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned with the tidy figures of 1/22 from his four overs against Pakistan and has been rewarded with a two-spot jump to 10th on the updated rankings list.
Meanwhile, India's Hardik Pandya has also moved up to now rank the No.3 all-rounder in T20I cricket. Pandya claimed three wickets and played a valuable knock of 40 against Pakistan.
Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan remains the top ranked all-rounder following the latest update to the rankings, with Afghanistan counterpart Mohammad Nabi staying in second and just 14 rating points behind.
(With ICC inputs)
