ICC T20 rankings: Abhishek Sharma climbs 38 places to second after scintillating century against England

Young Team India opener Abhishek Sharma has jumped a whopping 38 place to climb to second place in the ICC T20I rankings for batters, after a mind-blowing performance in the five-match series against England. Abhishek scored 79 off 34 balls in the first T20I against England in Kolkata, but his breakthrough performance came in the fifth T20I in Mumbai, where he amassed 135 runs off just 54 deliveries.

The 24-year-old reached the milestone in just 37 balls, becoming India’s second-fastest centurion in the shortest format. Abhishek replaced teammate Tilak Varma in second place and currently has 829 rating points. Tilak, who has slipped to third, has 803 rating points. Australia’s Travis Head (855 points) continues to lead the batting rankings in T20Is.

England’s Phil Salt (798 points) and India skipper Suryakumar Yadav (738 points) have dropped a place each to be fourth and fifth respectively. Hardik Pandya climbed five places to go 51st, whereas Shivam Dube, who scored a fifty against England, jumped 38 places to go 58th. Rinku Singh also achieved a five-place jump to rank 55.

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Varun Chakravarthy joint-second among bowlers

Varun Chakravarthy has been rewarded for his impressive display against England to go joint-second in the T20I rankings for bowlers. He has the same rating points as England’s Adil Rashid (705), who has slipped to second place with West Indian Akeal Hosein taking top spot (707 points).

Varun picked 14 wickets from five T20Is against England, including a five-wicket haul and ended up as the highest wicket-taker of the series. Ravi Bishnoi jumped four places to climb to sixth whereas England pacer Jofra Archer slipped to tenth place.