DUBAI: Pakistan’s star trio of Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi suffered notable declines in the recently-updated International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s T20I Rankings following a gruelling 3-0 whitewash defeat against Australia.
Pakistan’s batters had a forgetful T20I series against Australia. In the three-match series Usman Khan remained the sole batter to score a half-century, amassing 59 runs in three innings – the most by a touring side batter.
Meanwhile, Babar, who scored 47 runs in as many innings with the best score of 41, dropped one place, to fifth, while his opening partner Rizwan also dropped one spot and consequently slipped to sixth.
Besides Babar and Rizwan, no Pakistani batter is in the Top 50 of the ICC Men’s T20I Batting Rankings.
On the other hand, India’s Tilak Varma, who enjoyed a dream run in the recently-concluded four-match T20I series against South Africa, climbed 69 places to secure third position in the batting rankings of the shortest format, led by Australia’s opening batter Travis Head.
The significant rise also placed Varma as the top-ranked Indian batter, closely followed by skipper Suryakumar Yadav at fourth, while Sanju Samson jumped 17 spots to 22nd, courtesy of two centuries in the aforementioned series against the Proteas.
On the bowling front, Pakistan’s ace pacer Shaheen suffered a steep decline, slipping 10 places to 24th, while right-arm speedster Haris Rauf got the reward of his outstanding performance as he rose to 20th, jumping four spots.
Meanwhile, Australia’s Adam Zampa jumped five places to third, while Nathan secured 11th place after improving 15 spots.
- Babar Azam
- Mohammad Rizwan
