ICC Men's T20I Rankings: Suryakumar Yadav retains top spot among batters, Babar Azam rises to third position

Dubai [UAE], April 12 (ANI): Star India T20I batter Suryakumar Yadav retained his top spot in the latest ICC Men's T20I Rankings among batters issued on Wednesday, with Pakistan duo of Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan set to get a chance to close the gap with the top-ranked batter in the T20I series against New Zealand.
Babar moved up to third on the rankings that were updated by the ICC and will get further opportunity to get close to Suryakumar when Pakistan commence their five-game T20I series against New Zealand on Saturday.
Both Babar and Rizwan sat out Pakistan's most recent T20I series against Bangladesh and will be keen to score freely against the Black Caps, who are coming off a narrow 2-1 series triumph over Sri Lanka at home.
While Suryakumar currently holds a commanding lead at the top of the T20I rankings for batters with 906 rating points, second-placed Rizwan (811) and third-placed Babar (755) could make gains while the India star is playing IPL.
Ironically, it was Devon Conway's absence from New Zealand's series against Sri Lanka that led to Babar improving one place to third on the latest set of rankings, with the Kiwi batter also at the IPL with the Chennai Super Kings.
Several New Zealand and Sri Lanka stars that did feature in the recently completed T20I series were rewarded for their performances with young spinner Maheesh Theekshana the biggest eye-catcher as the 22-year-old rose to a career-high rating and equal fifth-place on the rankings for bowlers.
Theekshana was the match-winner for Sri Lanka in the first match of the series for his efforts during the Super Over and the off-spinner backed up that performance with a pair of strong showings while opening the bowling in the final two matches.
Teammate Wanindu Hasaranga was expensive during the series and dropped two places to fourth on the T20I bowler rankings, with Afghanistan pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi (second) and Australia seamer Josh Hazlewood (third) both rising a place as a result.
It also means Afghanistan hold the top two spots on the T20I bowler rankings, with spinner Rashid Khan leading Farooqi in what is a tight race for the top spot.
Sri Lanka dasher Kusal Mendis (up 11 spots to equal 25th) and New Zealand right-hander Tim Seifert (from outside the top 100 to 36th) were the other big winners on the latest set of T20I rankings for batters, while there was some movement on the Test rankings following Bangladesh's victory over Ireland in Mirpur.
Experienced right-hander Mushfiqur Rahim moved up five places to 17th on the Test batter rankings after scores of 126 and 51*, while spin duo Taijul Islam and Shakib Al Hasan were rewarded on the list for bowlers.
Taijul collected a valuable five-wicket haul during the first innings and moved up three places to 20th as a result, while the Bangladesh skipper improved two spots to equal 26th. (ANI)