India surge to 2nd spot in T20I rankings post Lanka's drubbing

Dubai [UAE], Dec 25 (ANI): India have surged to the second spot in the ICC's latest T20I rankings after they completed a 3-0 clean sweep over Sri Lanka in the shortest-format on Sunday.

The Men in Blue defeated Lanka by five wickets in the third and final T20I of the three-match series to complete series whitewash at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

India have moved up from their pre-series tally of 119 points to 121 points. They have leapfrogged England, New Zealand and the Windies to move from fifth to second position in the list, which is led by Pakistan with 124 points.

In the T20I ranking for batsmen, Indian openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul have made substantial gains following their superb performances in the recently-concluded series.

Sharma's 162 runs in the series, which included a knock of 118 in the second match in Indore, have helped him gain six slots to reach 14th position.

Meanwhile, Rahul has gained 23 slots to reach fourth position after scoring 154 runs in the series including two half-centuries.

Australia opener Aaron Finch and Pakistan left-arm spinner Imad Wasim are the top-ranked batsman and bowler, respectively, in the latest ICC T20I Player Rankings.

Finch moved up one place as did Windies left-handed opener Evin Lewis, even as Virat Kohli slipped to third position after missing the series due to personal commitments. As players lose two per cent of their rating points for each T20I missed, Kohli, has slipped from 824 points to 776 points.

However, Kohli, who is top-ranked in ODIs and second in Tests, is only eight points behind Finch and four behind Lewis.

Similarly, Imad has moved up to become the top-ranked bowler as Jasprit Bumrah missed the final match of the series after finishing wicketless in the opening two games to slip to third place. Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan has moved up one place to take a career-best second position.

Both Finch and Imad have been top-ranked in the past. Finch has spent 121 matches and 368 days as number one while Imad has spent 15 matches and 132 days at the top. Finch was last at the top on March 18, 2016, while Imad was at number one position last on November 4 this year.

Among bowlers, leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal's eight wickets in the series have helped him move up 14 slots to reach 16th position while Hardik Pandya (up 40 places to joint-39th) and Kuleep Yadav (up 48 places to 64) have also moved northwards after taking six wickets each.

For Sri Lanka, Kusal Perera has moved up eight places to take the 30th slot in the batsmen's list after aggregating 100 runs in the series while Upul Tharanga has gained 36 slots to reach 105th position after his total of 81 runs.

Meanwhile, Thisara Perera has gained two places to reach 70th position among bowlers.(ANI)