Axar Patel leads Indian charge in ICC T20I rankings

Axar Patel has advanced 12 places to a career-best fifth position among bowlers as a clutch of India players made significant gains in the ICC T20I Player Rankings after strong performances in the series against Afghanistan.

Axar's hauls of 2/23 and 2/16 in India’s identical six-wicket wins over Afghanistan in the first two T20Is of their three-match series have also lifted him two places to 16th among all-rounders after the latest weekly rankings update on Wednesday that takes into consideration all matches completed till Tuesday.

Opener Yashaswi Jaiswal’s 34-ball 68 in the first T20I in Indore has lifted him seven places to a career-best sixth position, while other left-hander Shivam Dube’s successive unbeaten knocks of 60 and 63 have helped him shoot up from 265th to 58th.

Another player to make notable gains is New Zealand’s Finn Allen, whose two innings of 34 off 15 and 74 off 41 helped his team win the first two matches against Pakistan and lifted him 11 places to 16th among batters. His team-mate Tim Southee, who took six wickets in the first two matches, is up eight places to 18th in the bowlers’ list.

Shubman Gill (up seven places to 60th among batters), Tilak Verma (up three places to joint-61st among batters) and Arshdeep Singh (up four places to 21st among bowlers) are the other India players to move up while Najibullah Zadran (up one place to 46th) and Mohammad Nabi (up two places to 54th) are the Afghanistan players to move up in the batting rankings.

Pakistan’s star batter Babar Azam is up one place to fourth after notching consecutive half-centuries in the first two matches against New Zealand while Fakhar Zaman is up 14 places to 81st. Daryll Mitchell (up nine places to 37th) and Kane Williamson (up 13 places to 59th) are the Kiwi batters to move up.

The bowling rankings see Sri Lanka spinners Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana take joint-third position after moving up one and two places, respectively. Pakistan fast bowler Haris Rauf’s haul of five wickets in two matches have lifted him two places to joint-14th while New Zealand player Adam Milne’s six wickets in two matches see him advance from 66th to joint-47th position.