Dubai: India fast bowler Deepak Chahar, who returned a world record haul of six for seven against Bangladesh Sunday, has moved up 88 slots to 42nd in the latest ICC T20 rankings for bowlers.
The list, however, continued to be led by slow bowlers. The top five and eight of the top nine are spinners, with Mitchell Santner reaching second place – his best position since he topped the table in January 2018, behind Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan.
In the third and final match against Bangladesh, Chahar also became the first Indian to take a hat-trick in the shortest format, helping India secure their first T20 series win at home this season.
Rohit Sharma continued to remain India’s top-ranked batsman at seventh position while K L Rahul moved up a place to eight after his half-century Sunday.
England’s Dawid Malan has made a grand re-entry to the batting chart, grabbing third position in the list led by Pakistan’s Babar Azam, while Aaron Finch of Australia has taken second spot after gaining two positions.
Malan, whose tally of 458 runs is more than anyone else in the first nine matches, though remained 94 rating points adrift of Babar in the latest update which includes the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier 2019, the series between Australia and Pakistan, between New Zealand and England, as well as the one between India and Bangladesh.
England captain Eoin Morgan and New Zealand opener Martin Guptill have also made notable movements to take joint ninth place while Jonny Bairstow has reached a career-best 498 rating points and is in the top 40 for the first time.
Bangladesh batsman Mohammad Naim’s 143 runs in three matches saw him at joint-38th position along with Bairstow, one slot behind Tony Ura, the top-ranked Papua New Guinea batsman.
Other batsmen to advance included Callum MacLeod of Scotland (up five places to 44th), Muhammad Usman of the United Arab Emirates (up 18 places to 45th) and Oman opener Jatinder Singh (up 54 places to 46th).
Ashton Agar’s fine performances against Sri Lanka and Pakistan have seen him move up 57 places to ninth in the bowling list while Scotland’s Mark Watt’s successful ICC World Cup Qualifier 2019 saw him advance 13 places to 15th.
In the all-rounders’ table, Glenn Maxwell’s continued absence has enabled Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi to move above him to take the top spot for the first time, while Oman’s Zeeshan Maqsood has moved up from 11th to sixth.
In the team rankings, Pakistan continued at the top with 270 points but Australia were only one point behind them after winning their three-match series 2-0. England, South Africa and India occupied the next three positions and were within five points of each other as teams gear up for next year’s T20 World Cup in Australia.
PTI