Following his stellar performance in the ongoing series against England, India skipper Virat Kohli on Wednesday reclaimed the No.5 spot in the ICC T20I rankings for batsmen. According to The Indian Express, Kohli, a formerly top-ranked batsman in the format and currently number one in ODIs, moved up one slot and gained a massive 47 rating points after his unbeaten knocks of 73 and 77 in the second and third matches against England.
However, KL Rahul, who has scores of 1, 0 and 0 in the T20I series so far, slipped to No.4 from No.3. Rahul was in top form in the T20I series against New Zealand in early 2020 and was named Man-of-the-Series.
Also Read: IPL 2020: KL Rahul Jokingly Asks IPL To Ban Virat Kohli And AB de Villiers
In December, KL Rahul made 51 and 30 in the first two T20Is in Australia before running into a not-so-top-notch form. He now has 3 ducks in his last 4 T20I innings. Shreyas Iyer is up 32 places to the 31st spot while Rishabh Pant gained 30 spots to be ranked 80th.
Among bowlers, all-rounder Washington Sundar is up two places to 11th while seamers Shardul Thakur (up 14 places to 27th) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (up seven places to 45th) have also gained.
Despite KL Rahul’s lean patch, India captain Virat Kohli has backed him to continue as part of the team’s first choice opening combination alongside Rohit Sharma.
“Well I was going through a lean patch about two games ago. These things turn around very quickly. For us, he’s (Rahul) been a champion player. If you look at his stats in the last two-three years, they are probably better than anyone in world cricket in T20s.
“He’ll continue to be one of our main batters along with Rohit at the top of the order. We don’t have any concerns there. T20 is a game which is a very instinctive game. We know once he starts playing positively and a few shots come off, it’s a matter of five-six balls in this format and suddenly you’re back in this zone,” Kohli said after the 3rd T20I, according to India Today.
Kohli and Rahul are the only 2 Indian batsmen in the top-10 ICC list with 744 and 771 points respectively.
Also Read: Virat Kohli becomes First Batsman to Complete 3000 Runs in T20Is
