Daily Times

LAHORE: Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan is the new No. 1 T20I bowler in the world. He has displaced Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga at the top following his three wickets at less than a run a ball in Afghanistan’s historic 2-1 series win over Pakistan in Sharjah. Rashid has team-mate Fazalhaq Farooqi for company on the podium, with the young pacer slotting at No. 3 on the T20I bowlers’ rankings after finishing as top wicket-taker for Afghanistan in the Pakistan series. Farooqi claimed five wickets and conceded just 4.75 runs to the over across the three matches to climb 12 places in the rankings.

Rashid was No. 1 as recently as November last year, having consistently been one of the format’s best since first rising to the summit in February 2018. The 2-1 result was Afghanistan’s first T20I series win over Pakistan, and another bowler to make strides as a result was Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who moved from No. 10 to No. 8 after taking two-fors in the first and third games. For Pakistan, stand-in captain Shadab Khan (who led in place of the rested Babar Azam) moved up eight spots to No. 4 on the T20I allrounder rankings, having finished as the series’ third-highest run-scorer and joint-fourth-highest wicket-taker. In the T20I batting rankings, South Africa’s Rilee Rossouw moved up two places to No. 6 courtesy his 42 off 21, albeit in a losing cause against West Indies in the series-deciding third T20I in Johannesburg.

Rohit Sharma, Adam Zampa move up in ODI rankings: Following Australia’s ODI series winning victory against India in Chennai, legspinner Adam Zampa has moved to a career-best sixth in the one-day bowling rankings, while India captain Rohit Sharma is up one spot to eighth in the batting rankings. Zampa had produced figures of 10-0-45-4 in that game which Australia won by 21 runs to clinch the series 2-1, while Rohit had slammed 30 off 17, sparking his gains. Zimbabwe’s Sikandar Raza inched his way up the allrounder rankings too this week, going up one spot to fifth after Zimbabwe’s hard-fought series win against Netherlands where he scored 40 and topped the bowling charts for his side with five scalps.