ICC women's T20I rankings: Shafali Verma climbs to second spot in batters' charts, Smriti Mandhana retains seventh

Dubai: India’s teenaged batting sensation Shafali Verma moved up a place to second while vice-captain Smriti Mandhana retained the seventh spot in the latest ICC women’s T20I rankings, released on Tuesday. [caption id=“attachment_9395931” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] File image of Shafali Verma. Image credit: ICC Media[/caption] With 744 rating points, Verma is behind leader Beth Mooney (748) of Australia while Mandhana has 693 points. Jemimah Rodrigues— with 643 points— remained at the ninth spot to be the third Indian batswoman in the top 10. Sophie Devine (3rd) of New Zealand, Australia’s Meg Lanning (4th) and Alyssa Healy (5th) all moved up a rung each. All-rounder Deepti Sharma (6th), spinners Radha Yadav (8th) and Poonam Yadav (9th) were in the top 10 in the bowlers list. England’s Sophie Ecclestone (799) continued to lead the bowlers’ list and was followed by Shabnim Ismail (764) of South Africa in the second spot. England’s Sarah Glenn (755), Australia’s Megan Schutt (753) and Jess Jonassen (730) round up the top five. Deepti was the lone Indian to figure in the all-rounders’ list. She is placed fourth with 302 points. India haven’t played a T20 International in over a year. They last played on 8 March, 2020 when they lost to Australia in the T20 World Cup final. They will take on South Africa in a three-match T20 series starting on 20 March.