Suryakumar Yadav’s No.1 T20I batter ranking snatched by Travis Head

Suryakumar Yadav’s reign as the No.1 T20I batter ended as Australia’s Travis Head took the top in ICC rankings for T20I batters on Wednesday.

Suryakumar was the top-ranked men’s batter in the T20Is since December 2023, having also held the No. 1 spot on previous occasions.

But Head’s belligerent display in the T20 World Cup while opening the batting for Australia brought about a major change in the rankings.

Head jumped four places into the top spot, with Suryakumar, Phil Salt, Babar Azam, and Mohammad Rizwan all dropping down a place to make up the remainder of the top five.

The left-hander’s rise was on the back of a whirlwind 76 off 43 balls in Australia’s last Super Eight game in the tournament.

Head, however, would not be able to strengthen his ranking as his knock was not enough to ensure an Australian victory against India.

The 2021 champions were knocked out after Afghanistan beat Bangladesh to enter their maiden World Cup semi-finals.

Head scored 255 runs in seven matches at an average of 42.

His strike rate of 158 is the highest among batters who have scored more than 200 runs in this tournament, where run-scoring has not been the easiest of tasks.

Suryakumar, who has scored 149 runs in this World Cup in six outings at a strike rate of 139, will have an opportunity to reclaim his spot when India take on England in the in the second semi-final on Thursday.

Yadav is only two rating points behind Head.

If he has a good outing against England and has another crack at things in the final on Saturday, he could be back as the No.1 batter.

Bumrah’s rise, Hasaranga top all-rounder

West Indies’ Johnson Charles is the only new arrival into the top ten, up four spots, with Afghanistan star Rahmanullah Gurbaz a place lower after going up five spots.

It’s not all good news for Australians in the latest edition of the rankings, however, with Marcus Stoinis being knocked off top spot in the All-rounders Rankings after his short stay as No. 1.

Stoinis is down to fourth, with India’s Hardik Pandya up to third, Mohammad Nabi of Afghanistan in second, and Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga back to top spot.

Roston Chase of West Indies is the big mover among the all-rounders, up 17 places to 12th.

England’s Adil Rashid remains at the top of the bowling rankings, but Rashid Khan is up to second after his T20 World Cup heroics, with Josh Hazlewood moving up three places into fourth, behind Hasaranga.

A few big names are surging up the bowling rankings a bit further down the standings, having been used sparingly by their countries for varying reasons in recent times.

Kuldeep Yadav is up 20 places into 11th, while his Indian teammate Jasprit Bumrah has jumped a remarkable 44 spots into 24th, and England’s Jofra Archer is up 19 to 38th on his comeback from injury.

Bumrah has taken 11 wickets in this World Cup in six innings so far with an impeccable economy rate of 4.08.