India Skipper Virat Kohli and Dhawan Moves up in ICC T20 Rankings

Dubai: India skipper Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan on Wednesday moved closer to the top 10 while Afghanistan's Hazratullah Zazai and Scotlands George Munsey achieved new highs for their respective teams in the ICC Men's T20I player rankings.

Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 72 in the second T20 of the three-match series against South Africa, which ended in a 1-1 draw, saw him gain one spot and reach the 11th position in the batting list, while Dhawan moved up three places to 13th after scores of 40 and 36 in the second and third T20 against the Proteas, respectively.

The latest rankings update takes into account the India-South Africa series, Bangladesh tri-series also featuring Afghanistan and Zimbabwe, as well as the Ireland tri-series in which Scotland and the Netherlands were the other two teams, the ICC said in a statement.

Fifth-ranked Zazai’s current 727 points are the highest ever by an Afghanistan batsman while 21st ranked Munsey became the first Scotland batsman to reach 600 points after scoring an unbeaten 127 off just 56 balls against the Netherlands before dropping to 585 points at the end of the series. The series in India also saw South Africa’s Quinton de Kock move up from 49th to 30th, his highest position in two years, after scores of 52 and 79 not out in the second and third T20, respectively. Proteas spinner Tabraiz Shamsi has reached the top 20 in the bowlers’ list for the first time while Andile Phehlukwayo achieved a career-best ranking of seven.

There were also some interesting developments in the Bangladesh tri-series. Captain Hamilton Masakadza retired from international cricket in 22nd place as Zimbabwe’s highest-ranked batsman, while Afghanistan spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman has moved into the top 10 in the bowlers’ list after taking seven wickets in the series.

The Ireland series saw the Dutch pair of Ben Cooper and Max O’Dowd achieve their career-best rankings at joint 41st among the batsmen, while Ireland’s Kevin O’Brien has achieved a career-high 459 rating points in batting. Irish batsman Andrew Balbirnie has progressed from 95th to 53rd spot. (IANS)

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