Dubai, Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav rocketed 20 places to reach a career-best No.3 spot in the International Cricket Council (ICC) men’s T20I player rankings that was released here on Monday.
Kuldeep, who took four wickets across the three Twenty20 Internationals against Australia, is now on 714 points and sits just behind Pakistan’s Shadab Khan (752) and table topper Rashid Khan (793) of Afghanistan.
Left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya, who claimed a stunning 4/36 in India’s series levelling-win in Sunday’s third T20I, rose 66 places to No.98, while the death over specialist duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah held their places at No.19 and No.21 respectively.
Among the others to move northwards in the ICC T20I bowlers’ chart, Australia leg-spinner Adam Zampa made a 17-spot leap to No.5 after picking three wickets against India across two bowling innings, including a match-winning spell of 2/22 in the first match.
However, with Australia quicks Billy Stanlake and Andrew Tye slipping five places to No.14 and eight places to No.18 respectively, the top 10 bowlers’ list now features nine spinners with Pakistan’s Faheem Ashraf the lone quick among the top names.
In the batting department, the results were mixed. India opener Shikhar Dhawan moved up five places to No.11 after his knocks of 76 and 41, but his opening partner Rohit Sharma and an off-colour Lokesh Rahul slipped two spots to No.6 and No.9 respectively, while Virat Kohli kept his spot at No.14 after scores of 4 and 61 not out, the latter a match-winning effort.
For Australia, skipper Aaron Finch, who failed to really be his destructive self in all four games including the one-off T20I against South Africa, slipped one spot to the third rank, but Glenn Maxwell rose to the fifth place from No.6 after scores of 38, 46, 19 and 13.
South Africa’s top-order batsmen made small gains after the victory in the only match against Australia. Skipper Faf du Plessis moved up one place to No.21. Quinton de Kock too moved up one place to No.36 too, while Reeza Hendricks rose three places to No.72.
In the all-rounders’ charts, Australia’s Marcus Stoinis rose 34 places to No.59, while Maxwell retained his place at the perch.