Hardik Pandya has surpassed England’s Liam Livingstone and Nepal’s Dipendra Singh Airee at the top of the T20I all-rounder rankings.
On Wednesday, Star India all-rounder Hardik Pandya reclaimed the top rank in the new ICC Men’s T20I Player Rankings for all-rounders after an outstanding performance in the just ended T20I series against South Africa. Pandya surpassed England’s Liam Livingstone and Nepal’s Dipendra Singh Airee at the top of the T20I all-rounder rankings following some impressive performances with both bat and ball during India’s recent series in South Africa.While his stint of 1/8 from three overs in the pivotal fourth game guaranteed the Asian team an amazing 3-1 series victory, his innings of 39* in the second game of the four-match series helped balance India’s batting.
It is the second time Pandya has held the No.1 ranking for T20 all-rounders, with the consistent India performer first rising to the top at the end of this year’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. In the most recent rankings update, Pandya wasn’t the only Indian player to make huge gains. Player of the Series and emerging star Tilak Varma shot up to 69 places in the batting ratings after scoring two hundreds and 280 runs in the series against the Proteas.
Due to his ascent, Varma became the highest-rated batter from India, moving up to third place overall behind Travis Head, the top-ranked T20I batsman. Captain Suryakumar Yadav fell one spot to fourth place behind him.The Proteas batsmen Tristan Stubbs (up three spots to 23rd) and Heinrich Klaasen (up six places to equal 59th) also rose in the rankings, while teammate Sanju Samson, who also scored two hundreds during the series with South Africa, moved up 17 spots to 22nd on the same list for T20I batters.
The list of T20I batters has also improved for West Indies hard-hitter Shai Hope (up 16 spots to 21st) and Sri Lanka right-hander Kusal Mendis (up 3 spots to equal 12th), while the versatile Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis moves up 10 spots to 45th after his recent half-century against Pakistan.
