Hardik Pandya’s impressive showing in the recently-concluded ICC men’s T20 World Cup has made him the first Indian player to become No.1 in the ICC men’s T20I allrounder rankings.
The 30-year-old rose two places to go level with Sri Lankan star Wanindu Hasaranga as the top-ranked men’s T20I all-rounder. Hardik, who played a pivotal role in Saturday’s final against South Africa with the crucial wickets of Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, had a good tournament with both bat and ball.
Hardik made impactful cameos down the order with the bat and got regular breakthroughs with the ball when the team needed him to. He finished with 144 runs at a batting strike-rate of over 150 and also took 11 wickets.
The star all-rounder’s World Cup performance helped him silence his critics, especially after a tumultuous Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign where he was subjected to boos relentlessly after replacing Rohit Sharma as captain of the Mumbai Indians franchise.
“It means a lot. Very emotional, we’ve been working very hard and something was not clicking. But today we got what the whole nation wanted. Special for me after my six months, I haven’t spoken a word, things have been unfair, but I knew there’d be a time I could shine. An opportunity like this makes it all the more special,” Pandya had reacted after the T20 WC final match
The Baroda all-rounder saved his best for the title clash in Barbados, when his decisive blow – the wicket of Klaasen – with South Africa on top of the game swung the contest. Hardik went on to bowl the tense final over and defended 16 runs to help India win the T20 World Cup title, and end a 11-year title drought.
Meanwhile, India’s star fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who won the Player of the Tournament award at the T20 World Cup, for his 15 wickets, rose 12 spots to go just outside the top-10, his highest position since the end of 2020.
Wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav entered the top-10 of the bowling rankings, moving up by three spots to joint-eighth. Among other beneficiaries were Arshdeep Singh, who moved up by four spots to a career-best No.13 after topping the wickets chart at the T20 World Cup, and South African left-arm wrist-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi, who moved up by five positions to reach the top 15.
There were other movements in the top 10 of the T20I all-rounder rankings, with Marcus Stoinis , Sikandar Raza, Shakib Al Hasan and Liam Livingstone rising up by one spot. Mohammad Nabi moved back by four spots to go out of the top five.
Among the men’s T20I bowling rankings, Anrich Nortje rose up by seven places to a career-best second spot to go just behind top-ranked Adil Rashid with 675 rating points.
There wasn’t too much movement in the top ten of the batting rankings with one minor change in South Africa skipper Aiden Markram dropping down by two points after an ordinary tournament with the bat.