ICC Rankings: Hardik Pandya, Tilak Varma and Sanju Samson advance after SA series

Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya once again tops the list of T20I all-rounders in the ICC rankings, while Tilak Varma has entered the top 10 among batsmen for the first time.

Hardik displaced England’s Liam Livingstone at the top and also overtook Nepal’s Dipendra Singh Airee after he took two wickets and scored 18, 39 not out and 2 in the T20Is against South Africa. His best performance was his spell of 1 for 8 which included a maiden in three overs in the fourth T20I in Johannesburg. The last time Hardik topped the all-rounders list was just a few months ago, after India won the T20 World Cup in June also beating South Africa.

Tilak, the Player of the Series in the recent bilaterals, moved up 69 places among batsmen after his consecutive unbeaten centuries that followed scores of 20 and 33 in the first two T20Is. He is now in third place, after Travis Head and Phil Salt, and closely followed by his captain Suryakumar Yadav. Sanju Samson, the other batsman with two hundreds in the series, moved up 17 places to 22nd as he also bagged two ducks between the two centuries. Among the bowlers, left-arm fast Arshdeep Singh moved to ninth place after gaining three places with the help of eight wickets against South Africa. Arshdeep was the series’ highest wicket-taker among fast bowlers and bagged three fors in the last two games.

Adam Zampa, who took six wickets against Pakistan, was among the biggest gainers among the players, reaching third place after moving up five places, just behind Adil Rashid and Wanindu Hasaranga. His teammate Nathan Ellis moved up a significant 15 places to reach 11th place, after finishing all three T20Is against Pakistan with four wickets, including figures of 3 for 9 in the opening match which was cut short by rain.

After the 1-1 T20I series between Sri Lanka and New Zealand, Kusal Mendis rose to 12th place after moving up three places. After winning the ODIs 2-0, Maheesh Theekshana moved up six places to sixth, pushing Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj one place down each to seventh and eighth respectively.