Suryakumar Yadav strengthens his top spot in ICC T20 ranking

DUBAI: India batter Suryakumar Yadav solidified his position at the top of the ICC Men's T20I rankings following his quickfire half-century in the second match of his side's T20I series against South Africa.

Suryakumar smashed 56 from 36 deliveries to gain a total of 10 rating points to further extend his lead as the No.1 ranked batter in the shortest format of the game.

As per the latest ICC T20I rankings update on Wednesday, Suryakumar sits comfortably on top with 865 ratings points, which is well clear of his nearest rivals in Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan (787 rating points) and South Africa's Aiden Markram (758) less than six months out from the start of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

Suryakumar claimed the premier ranking during the most recent edition of the T20 World Cup in Australia towards the end of last year.

In other movements following the match, Rinku Singh’s star continues to rise as he rocketed 46 slots to 59th among the batters, following his dazzling and unbeaten 68 from just 39 balls, which lifted him to career-best 464 rating points.

South Africa opener Reeza Hendricks is one player to make ground on Suryakumar after he moved up one place to eighth following his innings of 49 against India while India's Tilak Varma moved up 10 spots to be placed 55th.

In the bowler's list, newly-crowned No.1 T20I bowler India's Ravi Bishnoi, who missed out on selection for the South Africa tour, paved the way for Afghanistan ace Rashid Khan to join the India young gun at the top of the rankings for T20I bowlers, with Proteas spinner Tabraiz Shamsi became the eighth spinner in the top 10 of the list when he hopped two places from 12th, moving to 654 points.

India left-armer Kuldeep Yadav rises five places to 32nd on the same list, while Markram improves two places to second behind only India's Ravindra Jadeja on the latest T20I rankings for all-rounders.