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Indian opener Abhishek Sharma climbed up a whooping 38 places to reach the second spot among batters in the ICC Men's T20I Rankings among batters, issued on Wednesday, according to ICC Cricket's website.
A pair of India's in-form white-ball players have been rewarded for strong performances during the recent home series against England by making giant strides on the latest ICC Men's T20I Player Rankings. Abhishek produced the best innings of his fledging international career when he smashed a quickfire 135 in the fifth and final match of the series in Mumbai and shot up a whopping 38 places on the T20I rankings for batters as a result. Abhishek's innings came from just 54 deliveries and was the highest individual innings made by an Indian men's player in the shortest format. As a result, the 24-year-old rose to second in the latest rankings for batters, as per ICC. He ended the series as a leading run-getter, with 279 runs at an average of 55.80 and a strike rate of 219.68, with a century and a fifty each. Australia star Travis Head remains out in front of the rankings for T20I batters, but Abhishek is just 26 rating points behind him following his record-breaking efforts at Wankhede as a trio of players from India hover inside the top five. Tilak Varma is third and skipper Suryakumar Yadav has dropped to fifth and all within striking distance of Head, while India teammates Hardik Pandya (up five rungs to equal 51st) and Shivam Dube (up 38 spots to 58th) also make big moves up the rankings for T20I batters following some good scores against England. It is a similar story on the latest rankings for T20I bowlers, with spinner Varun Chakravarthy moving up three places to equal second on the back of his 14 wickets (including a fifer) and Player of the Series effort against Jos Buttler's side. Teammate Ravi Bishnoi (up four places to sixth) also climbs the list for T20I bowlers following five wickets for the series against England. There is yet another change at the top as West Indies spinner Akeal Hosein re-claims his spot as the No.1 bowler after he lost the mantle to Adil Rashid a week earlier. The latest Test rankings saw a host of Australian players gain ground and that should come as no surprise given their impressive effort in defeating Sri Lanka by an innings and 242 runs during the recent first Test in Galle. Stand-in skipper Steve Smith gained three places to move up to fifth on the updated rankings for Test batters following his 35th Test century, while opener Usman Khawaja gained six places to rise to 11th after contributing his highest Test score of 232 during the romp. It is almost a carbon copy job in the rankings for Test bowlers, with veteran spinner Nathan Lyon improving two spots to jump to sixth overall and pacer Mitchell Starc up two places to 12th following their efforts in Galle. (ANI)
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