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Starc moves up as many as 10 places to reach eighth among ODI bowlers
Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga has leapfrogged Afghanistan’s new T20I captain Rashid Khan to be ranked career-best No. 2 among T20I bowlers. The ICC rankings list is led by South Africa’s Tabraiz Shamsi, who has a 72-point advantage following impressive returns on the tour of the Caribbean and Ireland earlier this month.
As many as six wristspinners feature in the top 10 – the others being Adil Rashid (fourth), Adam Zampa (seventh) and Ish Sodhi (ninth). Hasaranga will have an opportunity to establish a lead over Khan, who is just one point behind, during the second and third T20Is against India this week. The 23-year-old legspinner picked 2 for 28 during the series opener in Colombo on Sunday.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, India’s vice-captain on tour, jumped four places to be ranked 16th, while Yuzvendra Chahal, whose tight spell reined in Sri Lanka in the first T20I, jumped 10 places to be ranked 21st. Fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera is the next-best Sri Lankan, currently ranked 37th.
The other gainers include India’s stand-in captain Shikhar Dhawan, who is joint-29th with Reeza Hendricks. The South Africa opener made a 48-ball 69, his sixth T20I half-century, in an impressive 127-run opening stand to help South Africa clean sweep Ireland in Belfast last week.
In the ODI arena, Josh Hazlewood made significant gains following an excellent tour of the Caribbean, jumping to No. 2 after taking five wickets and starring in Australia’s 2-1 series win. His new-ball partner Mitchell Starc, who also came up with a Player-of-the-Series performance in picking 11 wickets, jumped 10 places to be ranked eighth. The list is headed by New Zealand’s Trent Boult.
Among the batters, Alex Carey jumped three places to be ranked just outside the top-20 (22nd), while Avishka Fernando, who struck a match-winning half-century against India to lift Sri Lanka off the bottom of the World Cup Super League points table, is now ranked 52nd.
This article was originally published by Espncricinfo.com. Read the original article here.