The ICC rankings – Wanindu Hasaranga moves up to second place amongst T20I bowlers, and Josh Hazlewood moves up to second place in ODIs

July 28, 2021 karavalitimes

Wanindu Hasaranga has surpassed Afghanistan’s new T20I captain Rashid Khan to be ranked No. 2 among T20I bowlers for the first time. The ICC rankings list is led by South Africa’s Tabraiz Shamsi, who has a 72-point advantage following impressive returns on the tour of the Caribbean and Ireland earlier this month.

As many as six wristspinners feature in the top 10 – the others being Adil Rashid (fourth), Adam Zampa (seventh) and Ish Sodhi (ninth). Hasaranga will have an opportunity to establish a lead over Khan, who is just one point behind, during the second and third T20Is against India this week. The 23-year-old legspinner picked 2 for 28 during the series opener in Colombo on Sunday.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, India’s vice-captain on tour, jumped four places to be ranked 16th, while Yuzvendra Chahal, whose tight spell reined in Sri Lanka in the first T20I, jumped 10 places to be ranked 21st. Fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera also moved up five places to 37th spot.

The other gainers include India’s stand-in captain Shikhar Dhawan, who is joint-29th with Reeza Hendricks. The South Africa opener made a 48-ball 69, his sixth T20I half-century, in an impressive 127-run opening stand to help South Africa clean sweep Ireland in Belfast last week.

In the ODI arena, Josh Hazlewood made significant gains following an excellent tour of the Caribbean, jumping to No. 2 after taking five wickets and starring in Australia’s 2-1 series win. His new-ball partner Mitchell Starc, who also came up with a Player-of-the-Series performance in picking 11 wickets, jumped 10 places to be ranked eighth. The list is headed by New Zealand’s Trent Boult.

Among the batters, Alex Carey jumped three places to be ranked just outside the top-20 (22nd), while Avishka Fernando, who struck a match-winning half-century against India to lift Sri Lanka off the bottom of the World Cup Super League points table, is now ranked 52nd.