look news india
New Delhi, July 10 (HS). India's top-order batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad has entered the top ten in the ICC Men's T20 batting rankings released on Wednesday. Gaikwad achieved this feat after scoring an unbeaten 77 off 47 balls in India's comprehensive 100-run win over Zimbabwe in the second T20I at Harare Sports Club on Sunday. As a result, Gaikwad jumped 13 places from 20th to seventh position, with Australian opener Travis Head at the top.
Gaikwad's Indian teammates Rinku Singh and Abhishek Sharma have also made big gains in the rankings. Rinku, who was among the reserve players in India's victorious T20 World Cup campaign last month, played an aggressive innings of 48 runs off 22 balls in the second T20 match, thanks to which he jumped four places to 39th position. On the other hand, Abhishek, who was out for zero in his first international match for India, registered his ranking at 75th position by scoring a brilliant century off just 47 balls in the second match.
Leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi, who took six wickets in the first two matches against Zimbabwe, has jumped eight places to 14th position in the bowlers' rankings. Zimbabwe's promising batsman Brian Bennett has jumped 25 places to 96th position thanks to two aggressive cameos. He scored 22 runs off 15 balls and 26 runs off nine balls in two matches.
After the first two matches, fast bowler Blessing Muzarabani has also moved up eight places to 55th position. He played a key role in Zimbabwe winning the first T20 match by 13 runs with his spell of 1/17. Adam Zampa (7th), Fazalhaq Farooqi (8th) and Maheesh Theekshana (10th) have also gained in the bowlers' rankings, while Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav have suffered due to being rested from the Zimbabwe series.
In terms of all-rounder rankings, Sri Lankan leg-spin all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga has reached the top spot, while Hardik Pandya has returned to second place. India's off-spin all-rounder Washington Sundar entered the top 50 on the basis of his quick innings of 27 runs in the first match as well as taking three wickets in two matches in Zimbabwe.