Zimbabwe star closes in on top spot in Men’s Rankings
Plenty of movement across the board in the new ICC Men’s Player Rankings on the back of recent white-ball action.
Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza closed the gap with Afghanistan’s Azmatullah Omarzai at the top of the ICC Men’s ODI All-Rounder Rankings.
Raza now sits at the second place with 276 points after he finished the three-match ODI series against Australia as the highest run-scorer, alongside his three wickets.
In the week since the previous update in the Rankings, the veteran all-rounder scored a 45 and an unbeaten 81, respectively, in the final two games of the series. His antics with the bat have also propelled him by five spots up to 24th on the Men’s ODI Batting Rankings.
To add to his all-round display, in the series decider, which went right down to the wire as Australia seized a one-run win, Raza also clinched a brace with the ball.
Nathan Ellis, who wrapped up the series as the leading wicket-taker, rose three spots to 17th in the ICC Men’s ODI Bowling Rankings.
The right-arm quick snapped four wickets in the final two ODIs of the series, to follow his maiden ODI five-wicket haul.
Another key player in Australia’s win, Josh Inglis, climbed by 11 spots to 30th in the ODI Batting Rankings. Inglis scored a sensational century in the final ODI, his second in the format.
Meanwhile, India captain Shreyas Iyer rose seven spots to 22nd in the Men’s T20I Batting Rankings.
Iyer’s leap comes on the back of India’s series sweep against Afghanistan and his Player of the Match winning performance in a close one-off encounter against Japan.
The white-ball action between England and Sri Lanka also saw multiple winners emerge across categories.
The biggest winner of all was England seamer Jamie Overton. Impressive with his bowling in England’s T20I series win, Overton climbed by a whopping 47 spots to enter the top-10 in the Men’s T20 Bowling Rankings and a career best rating of 674.
England’s Will Jacks enjoyed a massive leap of 35 places on the back of his match-winning efforts in the opening ODI of a three-match series.
Ranked joint 37th now, Jacks compiled a crucial knock of 46 and followed it up with a five-wicket haul that awarded England with a win.
His performances in the T20I series that preceded the ODI action, also earned Jacks higher spots in the T20I Bowling (by 15 spots to joint 58th) and All-Rounder Rankings (up three rungs to third).
Sri Lanka’s Dunith Wellalage, who scored 45 runs with the bat and claimed a wicket in the first ODI climbed by seven rungs to 22nd in the Men’s ODI All-Rounder Rankings.
Meanwhile, England captain Harry Brook also elevated his status across the ODI and T20I Batting Rankings.
Brook, who helped England wrap up the T20I series 3-0 with an unbeaten 33, finished as the Player of the Series, amassing 237 runs.
He is now up by five spots to fourth in the Men’s T20I Batting Rankings, with a career-best rating of 793.
His knock of 67, which was the highest score for England in the opening ODI against Sri Lanka, also helped him up by three rungs in the Men’s ODI Batting Rankings to the 12th spot.
Brook is also on track to become the only current batter to be in the top 10 rankings across formats.
England opener Jos Buttler, who finished the T20I series with the most runs, also gained two spots to equal 5th, just below his captain in the Men's T20I Batting Rankings.