Australia’s Mitchell Marsh moves up 13 places in latest ICC T20I rankings

Dubai, Aug. 4 (IANS): Australian cricketer Mitchell Marsh, who hit a 45-ball 45 in the opening T20 International against Bangladesh at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Tuesday night, has moved up 13 places to joint 25th in the ICC Men’s T20I rankings released on Wednesday.

Despite the knock, Australia lost the low-scoring opening match of the five-match T20I series by 23 runs. Bangladesh had scored 131/7 in the allotted 20 overs and bundled out the tourists for a paltry 108 with Nasmul Ahmed taking 4/19. Marsh was the standout batsman for Australia, scoring 45.

Marsh has been in blistering form in the shortest format and continued in the same vein in the opening match of the T20I series against Bangladesh. Bangladesh’s Mohammad Naim also scored a 29-ball 30, gaining seven spots in the rankings.

Shakib Al Hasan’s all-round show in the first T20I helped him move up the list. Shakib returned with figures of 1/24 with the ball, to gain three spots to reach the 18th position. He also scored a crucial knock of 36, which saw him gain six places to 56th in the batting rankings. Shakib has also retained his second place in the list of all-rounders rankings.

In other big moves, West Indies’ Nicholas Pooran moved up 15 places to the 48th position after his unbeaten 62 in the second T20I against Pakistan. Jason Holder and Hasan Ali also came up with good performances in the same match with figures of 4/26 and 1/32 respectively.

Holder has thus moved up 17 places to the 53rd spot in the rankings while Ali has gained six spots to move up to number 60.

With four matches still remaining in the series between Bangladesh and Australia, players from both sides will look to make further gains in the rankings with some decent performances.