The International Cricket Council (ICC) on October 27 announced the new T20I rankings of players. And it isn’t surprising that Indian skipper Virat Kohli has slipped one spot and is now at the number five position with 725 rating points.
The 32-year-old Kohli has lost his number four spot to Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan, who now has 727 rating points to his name.
On the other hand, Indian batter KL Rahul, who was at number six spot, slipped to the eighth in the list with 684 points under his belt. He had managed to score just three runs against arch-rivals Pakistan in the recent T20 World Cup encounter.
Kohli’s lean patch
Despite scoring a half-century against Pakistan on Sunday, Kohli has slipped one position in the T20I rankings.
Even in the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL), the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper notched up 11, 39, 4, 5, 25 in his last five outings, which reflects Kohli’s lean patch with the bat.
For a player like Kohli, scoring hundreds seemed fun at one point but since 2019 he has struggled to hit a single ton in international cricket. He scored his last international hundred against Bangladesh in the day-night test in November 2019. Since then, there has been a drought of centuries.
Malan, Shakib, and Shamsi retain the number one spot
England batter Dawid Malan, Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib-Al-Hasan and South Africa Chinaman bowler Tabraiz Shamsi retained their top spot in the T20I rankings.
In the list of batters, Mohammed Rizwan jumped three spots and is now at number four while South African batter Aiden Markram, who played some blistering knocks recently, gained eight spots and is now at number four spot with 743 points. Markram is now only behind Dawid Malan (831 points) and Babar Azam (820 points) on the list.
When it comes to bowlers, Shamsi retained his top position with 750 points, followed by Sri Lankan leg spinner Wanindu De Silva (726 points). Afghanistan's top spinner Rashid Khan is at number three with 720 points in the tally.
In the all-rounders’ list, Shakib remains at number one with 295 points. Next to him is Afghan captain Mohammad Nabi with 275 points.
