South Africa batter Aiden Markram has made sig-nificant gains in the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s ODI Player Rankings after hitting a career-best 175 against the Netherlands over the past week, according to the latest ranking updates issued by the ICC on Wednesday.
Markram gained 13 spots to reach 41st position in the batting rankings and 16 places to 32nd in the all-rounders’ list, another career-best feat in each as South Africa beat the Dutch 2-0 in their three-match series in Johannesburg. They edged closer to auto-matic qualification for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in India later this year.
The Netherlands batters also made good pro-gress, with Max O’Dowd (up to 75th from 78th), Vikramjit Singh (up to 109th from 119th) and Teja Ndiamanuru (up to 138th from 154th) the most notable mentions.
The week’s results and movements in the rank-ings have also seen India’s Shubman Gill rise one place to reach his own career-best batting ranking of number four.
Other gains were made by New Zealand’s Henry Nicholls, who climbed two spots to 69 in the batting rankings and his teammate Will Young, who leaped 60 spots to a personal best 143rd following their 2-0 series victory over Sri Lanka.
There are three Pakistan batsmen in the top ten. Pakistan skipper Babar Azam continues to occupy the top slot. He is followed by Rassie van der Dus-sen, who sits at number 2. Pakistan’s Imam-ul-Haq is at number 3, while Fakhar Zaman is at number 10.
Matt Henry stood out for the Black Caps, jump-ing five slots to land on the fifth spot in the bowling rankings from number 10, while South Africa’s Sisanda Magala announced himself with a 35-place leap to his own career-best number 165th after taking eight wickets in two matches, including a maiden five-wicket haul against the Netherlands.
In the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s T20I Player Rankings, Bangladesh’s Litton Das has risen one spot to reach 21st position, his highest career ranking so far, sharing the spot with New Zealand’s Daryl Mitchell, who rose five places from 26. This is also Mitchell’s career-best ranking while his previous best was 25th.
Sri Lanka’s Kariyawasa Asalanka ties with Scotland’s George Munsey for 23rd place after jumping 12 spots from 35th.
Ireland’s batters also made significant gains after their 2-1 series defeat to Bangladesh. Captain Paul Stirling led from the front with a five-spot rise to 29th place. His teammates, Harry Tector and Curtis Campher rose to 87th and 100th, respectively, Tector progressed three places from 90th and Campher made a huge 25-place leap, also rising nine places in the bowling rankings to 134th.
Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan remains the number one T20I all-rounder, while going up one spot in the batting rankings to 62nd place.
In the bowling rankings, Maheesh Theekshana has risen three spots to 10th while Bangladesh’s Taskin Ahmed has gone up three places to 36th.—APP
