ISLAMABAD – Pakistan ace batsman Babar Azam has retained the top positionas well as his aggregate of 879 points in the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s Twenty20Player Rankings, released Monday.
For Pakistan, experienced players Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez havealso advanced to 45th and 71th positions, respectively, after slamming ahalf-century each in the three-match series against Bangladesh. Babar, thethird Pakistan batsman to score a half-century in the series, has retainedthe top position, said a press release issued here.
Left-arm fast bowler Shaheen Afridi has moved up from 72nd to 39th positionwith two wickets in the series, which the home side won 2-0, with one matchabandoned, to retain the top rank in the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s T20 TeamRankings.
Lokesh Rahul leads a pack of India players who have shot up the Rankingsafter their team stormed to a 5-0 series win in New Zealand.
Rahul’s series topping aggregate of 224 runs has lifted him four places toa career best-equaling second place while Rohit Sharma (up three places to10th), Shreyas Iyer (up 63 places to 55th) and Manish Pandey (up 12 placesto 58th) are others advancing in the latest rankings update that alsoincludes the Pakistan-Bangladesh series.
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Indian captain Virat Kohli has retained his ninth position with 105 runsfrom four matches. The story is similar for the India bowling attack asJasprit Bumrah has gained 26 places to reach 11th position, YuzvendraChahal has advanced 10 places to 30th and Shardul Thakur’s eight wickets inthe series have lifted him 34 places to 57th position. Navdeep Saini (up 25places to 71st) and Ravindra Jadeja (up 34 places to 76th) have also movedup.
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson’s 160 runs in the series have taken himfrom 23rd to 16th position while Tim Seifert (73rd to 34th) and Ross Taylor(50th to 39th) have also made notable gains in the batsmen’s list.Leg-spinner Ish Sodhi has advanced six places to 13th among bowlers.
Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal, who top-scored in the series with anaggregate of 104 runs, has gained 11 slots to reach 50th position. AlAmin-Hossain is at 51st position among bowlers after gaining 25 places.
