Ishan Kishan dethrones Abhishek Sharma to claim No 1 ICC T20I batting rank

Dubai: Dynamic Indian wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan has overtaken his teammate Abhishek Sharma to claim the No. 1 position in the latest ICC men's T20I batting rankings published on Wednesday.

Kishan reached the pinnacle with 876 rating points following a stretch of dependable performances during the T20 World Cup held earlier this year. The aggressive left-handed batter amassed 317 runs throughout the tournament while maintaining a strike rate near 200, highlighted by a Player of the Match outing against Pakistan in Colombo.

Sharma, who possesses 869 rating points, had maintained the premier ranking for nearly a year. With this advancement, Kishan joins an elite fraternity of Indian cricketers alongside Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav as one of only four men from the country to secure the top T20I batting rank.

Sahibzada Farhan of Pakistan occupies a distant third place in the rankings with 848 points.

The newly designated vice captain for India, Tilak Varma, remained unchanged at sixth place with 747 rating points, while the dismissed former captain Suryakumar Yadav slipped one position to sit at eighth.

On the bowling side, India's Varun Chakravarthy and Jasprit Bumrah each slid down one position to occupy third and sixth place, respectively. Rashid Khan of Afghanistan preserved his hold on the top ranking.

In the men's Test batting rankings, Australia's Travis Head surged to the No. 1 spot, causing England's Joe Root to decline to third.

Indian Test captain Shubman Gill climbed one position to reach sixth, while Yashasvi Jaiswal dropped one place to sit at ninth. Beyond the top 10, Rishabh Pant stands as the next highest-ranked Indian batter at 13th, while Bumrah retains the top spot among Test bowlers.

With inputs from PTI