RIDING on the back of his incredible performances during the ongoing T20 World Cup, India's swashbuckling batter Suryakumar Yadav on Wednesday became the world's number one batsman in T20 Internationals. Yadav surpassed Pakistan opener Muhammad Rizwan to reach the number one spot becoming just the second Indian player to hold the top T20I batter ranking.
Yadav has accumulated 863 points with Rizwan at 842 points. New Zealand's Devon Conway completes the top three with 792 points. Since beginning his T20I journey for India in March of last year, Yadav has quickly established himself as one of the best batters in the shortest format of the game, scoring one century and 11 fifties from 37 appearances for his country.
Yadav is the 23rd player to top the T20I batting rankings and only the second Indian to reach No. 1 in T20 cricket after Virat Kohli, who spent 1,013 days at the top in different periods from September 2014 to December 2017. Yadav's tally of 863 rating points is also the second-best by an Indian, the highest being Kohli's tally of 897 in September 2014.
New Zealand's Glenn Phillips has moved up five slots to reach a career-best seventh position after scores of 104 against Sri Lanka and 62 against England, while South Africa's Rilee Rossouw is another one to enter the top 10 after scoring 109 against Bangladesh, moving up 17 slots to a career-best eighth position.
The latest weekly update, which considers performances in matches completed by Tuesday, sees Sri Lanka spinner Wanindu Hasaranga advance four places to second position among bowlers.