Dubai, Feb. 15 (IANS): India batsmen KL Rahul and Virat Kohli have maintained their respective second and seventh spots in the ICC T20I rankings for batsmen which got updated on Monday.
India are slated to take on England in five T20Is, following the culmination of the ongoing four-Test series, part of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) and the duo will get a chance to gain some points.
The rankings got updated following the culmination of the three-match series between Pakistan and South Africa which the Babar Azam led-side won 2-1.
South Africa spinner Tabraiz Shamsi has grabbed a career-best second position among bowlers while Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan has raced to 42nd place in the rankings.
Shamsi’s series-topping six wickets, which included a haul of four for 25 in the final match, helped the left-arm wrist-spinner overtake Australia’s Adam Zampa, England’s Adil Rashid and Afghanistan’s Mujeeb Ur Rahman to within three points of top-ranked Rashid Khan of Afghanistan.
Rizwan too benefited from heading the run-aggregate in the series with 197 runs, which comprised knocks of 104 not out, 51 and 42. The string of impressive scores won him the player of the series award and lifted him a whopping 116 slots to a career-best 42nd position.
Haider Ali is another Pakistan batsman to advance, moving up 13 places to 137th position while fast bowlers Shaheen Afridi (up five places to 11th) and Hasan Ali (up 14 places to 82nd), and spinners Mohammad Nawaz (re-entered at 64th) and Usman Qadir (up 129 places to 92nd) are the bowlers to progress.
For South Africa, Reeza Hendricks’s 98 runs in the series have lifted him seven places to 17th and David Miller’s 116 runs, which included a 45-ball 85 not out in the second match, sees him gain seven places to 22nd position in the list led by Dawid Malan of England.
Fast bowler Dwaine Pretorius has moved up from 121st place to 51st, after matching compatriot Shamsi’s six wickets in the series, a huge gain considering his previous best was only a 107th rank.
There is no change of positions in the ICC team rankings after the series. Pakistan have gained one point but remain in fourth position with 260 points while South Africa have lost one point but remain fifth with 251 points.
