ICC T20I rankings: Virat Kohli moves up, Babar Azam surpasses KL Rahul

The Indian captain Virat Kohli has moved up by one place in the latest update of ICC T20I rankings.

Kohli has now reclaimed the fifth position in the rankings after two sublime knocks in the ongoing five-match T20I series. The talisman had scored a match-winning knock of 73 runs off just 49 balls in the second T20I and helped his team chase down 165 runs with ease.

Subsequently, Kohli played another master-class knock of 77 runs off just 46 balls in the third T20I to take India to a respectable score of 156 runs but his efforts went in vain as the team lost by eight wickets. Kohli replaced South Africa’s Rassie Van der Dussen from fifth place as he gained 47 rating points after his consistent performances.

Pakistan’s T20I skipper Babar Azam has overtaken India’s out-of-form opener KL Rahul and now occupies third place in the rankings. Rahul has had a string of poor scores as he has made a solitary run in his last four T20I innings. His last four scores read as 0, 1, 0, 0 and thus he has slipped to fourth place.

Meanwhile, England’s Dawid Malan and Australia’s limited-overs skipper Aaron Finch continue to be the top two batsmen in the rankings.

On the other hand, Jos Buttler, who played a match-winning knock of 83 runs off just 52 balls in the third T20I against India also gained big in the rankings table. Buttler has made a jump of five places to occupy 19th place in the rankings. England’s wicket-keeper career-best ranking is 17th, which he achieved back in October 2018.

Jonny Bairstow, who played a crucial knock of unbeaten 40 runs in the third T20I also moved up in the rankings by two places to take the 14th rank. New Zealand’s Devon Conway, who scored 192 runs in the series against Australia, also takes a jump of one place and breaks into the top 10 rankings with 660 rating points.