India All-rounder Reclaims No.1 Spot In ICC Rankings; Tilak Varma Becomes India's Top Ranked Batter Surpassing Suryakumar Yadav

Hardik Pandya has regained the No. 1 spot in the latest ICC Men’s T20I rankings after a series win against South Africa.

Hyderabad: India all-rounder Hardik Pandya has regained the top spot in the all-rounders in the recently released ICC Men’s T20I rankings by the International Cricket Council (ICC). Youngster Tilak Varma has made a massive leap of 69 spots in the rankings by climbing to third place in the list of batters. Pandya surpassed England’s Liam Livingstone and Nepal’s Dipendra Singh Airee to take the top spot.

In the second game of the four-match series, Hardik played a knock of unbeaten 39 runs. The all-rounder anchored the Indian innings during a tricky phase. Also, he picked a wicket for eight runs within three overs in the fourth match of the series. These performances helped him climb the summit in the all-rounders’ rankings. It is the second time that Hardik has topped the charts this year.

Tilak Varma was a standout performer in the series against South Africa. He was the highest run-getter in the series scoring 280 runs from four innings with an average of 140 and a strike rate of 198.58. Varma hit two centuries and boosted his rankings by 69 spots. He is now in the third position after Phil Salt and Travis Head.

Samson amassed 216 runs in the series with two centuries. He has now climbed to the 22nd spot in the T20I rankings. For South Africa, Tristan Stubbs and Heinrich Klaasen climbed to the 23rd and 69th positions respectively.

India impressed in the series against South Africa with a 3-1 win and the performances from the individual players also helped them make progress in the rankings.