With some of their bowlers making significant advancements on the most recent ICC Men’s T20I Player Rankings, Afghanistan’s national T20I series victory over Pakistan has been helpful to several of their stars.
That was the first time Afghanistan had beat Pakistan in a bilateral T20I series, and star spinner Rashid Khan reaped the benefits by surpassing Sri Lankan tweaker Wanindu Hasaranga and recovering the top spot in the world T20I bowlers rankings.
The 24-year-old Rashid first gained top billing as the No. 1 T20I bowler back in 2018 and has since been a very reliable player in the game’s shortest format.
In Sharjah, the right-arm collected a wicket against Pakistan in each of the three games, with his stingy economy rate in both of Afghanistan’s triumphs in the opening two games of the series standing out.
Fazalhaq Farooqi, a teammate of Rashid’s, was the series’ top bowler with a total of five wickets and a 4.75 economy rate. The left-armer jumped an impressive 12 ranks to finish third overall in the most recent rankings update.
With spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman completing off the impressive trio in eighth place after taking four wickets in the series against Pakistan, Afghanistan now has three players ranked in the top 10 of the T20I category for bowlers.
Regular Pakistani captain Babar Azam was rested for the series and moved to fourth place in the T20I batter rankings as a result, but stand-in captain Shadab Khan was impressed and received the proper recognition on the most recent rankings update.
In the T20I all-rounder rankings, Shadab moved up eight spaces to fourth and up six spots to 12th overall on the list for bowers, while colleague Mohammad Wasim moved up nine spots to 23rd in the same category.
As West Indies defeated South Africa in a series, a number of their players rose to the T20I rankings list. Beanpole quick Alzarri Joseph rose 17 ranks to 33rd place among bowlers, while colleague Johnson Charles climbed 92 spots to 17th place among batters.
In what was a high-scoring and entertaining series, South African batters Rilee Rossouw (up two slots to sixth) and Reeza Hendricks (up eight spaces to 12th) also improved significantly.
