Will Suryakumar Yadav conquer Babar Azam’s T20 throne?

Suryakumar Yadav was not known till the 2017 IPL. Who knows what Rohit Sharma saw in him despite being seen as an average batsman? He batted in the top order for four years for Mumbai Indians.

That Suryakumar is now one of the best T20 batsmen in the world. The Indian batsman has come second in the ranking of ICC T20 batsmen, and his difference with Babar Azam at the top is only 2 rating points. Since then, the question has been swirling, will Surya surpass Babar Azam?

India’s Suryakumar scored 76 runs off 44 balls in the third T20 against West Indies. Suryakumar has advanced three places in the latest published T20 rankings. Top batsman Pakistan captain Babar also dreams of becoming number one in Tests and topping the batsmen’s rankings in all three editions. But now, Suryakumar has come very close to taking away his T20 throne.

There are still two matches left in the ongoing series against the West Indies. If he gets runs in these two matches, Suryakumar will surpass Babar and climb to the top. Mohammad Rizwan (third), Aiden Markram (fourth) and David Malan (fifth) stepped one step down as the 31-year-old batsman jumped. Babar tops in two shorter versions. Third in the ranking of Test batsmen.

Bangladesh batsman Liton Das has advanced six steps in this weekly ranking of ICC. Liton rose from the 55th to the 49th position by scoring 32, 56 and 13 runs in the T20 series against Zimbabwe. Mohammad Naeem has dropped four places from 33rd place. Mahmudullah has been demoted six steps. Mahmudullah, who played an innings of 27 runs off 27 balls in the last match yesterday against Zimbabwe, dropped from 36th to 42nd place.

Afif Hossain’s unbeaten runs of 30 and 39 in the last two matches in the T20 series against Zimbabwe have improved him by five steps. Afif is now at 54th from 59th position. Shakib Al Hasan, who did not visit Zimbabwe in this ranking of batsmen, has dropped from 60th place to 70th place.

Caribbean spinner Akil Hossain has moved up three steps to sixth in the ranking of T20 bowlers. Bangladesh spinner Nasum Hossain has been demoted six steps. Nasum has dropped to 21st place. Pacer Mustafizur Rahman has dropped two places from 29th to 31st place.

Tabriz Shamsi, who has taken 8 wickets so far in South Africa’s current series against England, has got 19 points but has to remain at two in the ranking of T20 bowlers. Top bowler Josh Hazlewood with 64 points is ahead of him in the rankings (792). Proteas batsman Riza Hendricks scored half-centuries in all three matches against England and climbed 16 places to 15th place. Caribbean opener Brendan King, who scored 68 and 20 runs in the first two T20Is against India, has moved up 29 places to 27. England’s Jonny Bairstow climbed 13 places to 31st place.

Sri Lankan players have improved in Test rankings. Lankan off-spinner Ramesh Mendis has improved 19 places after winning the second Test at Galle. Mendis, who took 9 wickets in the second Test, is now at 31st position. Left-arm spinner Jayasuriya took 8 wickets and moved up 11 places to 33rd. Century-scoring Dinesh Chandimal moved up 2 places to 16th in the batsmen rankings, and another centurion moved up 8 places to 41st.