DUBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has released the latest T20 player rankings ahead of the T20 World Cup.
Saim Ayub from Pakistan has returned to his position as the number one T20 all-rounder in the world. Zimbabwe’s Sikandar Raza dropped one place to second position. Pakistani all-rounder Mohammad Nawaz advanced one position to fourth while Shadab Khan climbed 13 positions to reach 26th place.
T20 Batters Rankings
Abhishek Sharma from India holds the first position in ICC T20 batter’s rankings. England’s Phil Salt is second while his teammate Jos Buttler moved up one place to third.
Sahibzada Farhan from Pakistan who plays as an opening batsman dropped two positions to seventh place. Saim Ayub made strong progress, climbing eight places to 28th. T20 captain Salman Ali Agha from Pakistan advanced 12 positions to reach 29th.
Babar Azam, who previously served as captain, has now dropped three places to hold the 34th position. Fakhar Zaman who is part of Pakistan’s T20 World Cup squad, dropped five places to 74th.
T20 Bowlers Rankings
Varun Chakravarthy from India holds the top position in the T20 bowlers rankings. Pakistan’s Abrar Ahmed advanced two positions to his current second position which forced Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan to third place.
Mohammad Nawaz advanced eight positions to reach seventh place while Shaheen Afridi advanced five positions to reach 19th. Shadab Khan made a big jump of 33 places and is now ranked 72nd among T20 bowlers.
U-19 World Cup: India beats Afghanistan to reach final
Meanwhile, in the semi-final of the U-19 World Cup, India defeated Afghanistan by 7 wickets to move into the final.
The semi-final match, held in Harare, witnessed Afghanistan winning the toss and choosing to bat first. Afghanistan scored a total of 311 runs in their 50 overs, thanks to the impressive centuries by Faisal Shinwazadah, who scored 110, and Azirullah Niazi, who remained unbeaten with 101 runs. Afghanistan concluded their innings at 310 for 4.
India’s Deepeshan Devendran and Kanshak Chauhan took 2 wickets each for their team.
India then successfully chased the target and scored 311 runs for the loss of 3 wickets, thus winning the match and moving into the final.
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