India batters leave a mark
Gaikwad, who has been batting at No.3 in the series, made seven in the first game before bouncing back with an unbeaten 77 in a comprehensive win in the second T20I. His knock helped him rise from No.20 to No.7 in the Men’s T20I player rankings.
The Chennai Super Kings skipper is the third Indian in the top 10 charts, with Suryakumar Yadav occupying his place at No.2 and Yashasvi Jaiswal dropping three places to joint-tenth.
With most of India’s T20 World Cup-winning squad not playing the Zimbabwe T20Is, an opportunity presented itself to the younger players. India were shocked by Zimbabwe in the first T20I but bounced back strongly in the next game, with Abhishek Sharma leading the way with a century.
🦆 First T20I: 0 (4)
— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) July 9, 2024
💯 Second T20I: 100 (47)
Abhishek Sharma bounced back in style in just his second match for India 👏#ZIMvIND pic.twitter.com/U04SNxHl45
It helped him make a solid gain in the T20I rankings as well and is now at No.75. Rinku Singh, who was dismissed for a duck in the first T20I, made 48* in 22 balls in the convincing win in the second match. He has jumped four places to reach No.39.
The other batter to make a mark was Zimbabwe’s Brian Bennett, who gained 25 places and is now No.96 following his cameos of 22 in 15 and 26 off nine in the two games against India.
Slight shuffles in the bowler rankings
Ravi Bishnoi, who picked up six wickets in the first two games against Zimbabwe had jumped eight spots to move to No.14. Blessing Muzarabani also gained eight spots and is now up to No.55 after his spell of 1-17 in the first T20I helped his team to a memorable win.
Axar Patel (down two places from No7) and Kuldeep Yadav (down three from No.8) lost points after missing the Zimbabwe series. Both were a part of India’s T20 World Cup campaign. It saw Adam Zampa, Fazalhaq Farooqi and Maheesh Theekshana gain positions in the chart.
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