India And Pakistan Stars Locked In Battle For Top Spot In T20I Rankings

India's Suryakumar Yadav moved considerably closer to Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan, the number one ranked T20I batter in the world, intensifying the competition for the top spot. Both Rizwan and Suryakumar had decent outing in their home series against England and South Africa respectively. By concluding India's most recent T20I series at home against South Africa with two half-centuries and as their highest run scorer with a total of 119 runs, Yadav maintained his astounding climb in 2022.

Yadav's performance brought him to within 16 rating points of Rizwan in the latest T20I batter rankings, which the ICC revealed on October 5. The 32-year-old should have the opportunity to take home the top spot at the 2022 ICC T20 World Cup in Australia owing to his recent impressive showing.

With an impressive total of 316 runs in the recent seven-match T20I series against England, Rizwan finished as the series' top run scorer. However, the veteran was rested for the sixth game of the series and managed just one run in the series finale in Lahore, causing the right-hander to lose important breathing room at the top of the rankings.

The competition for first place is so close that Yadav might have even passed his Pakistani counterpart in the final game of India's series against South Africa in Indore with a sizable score, but the right-hander was out for only eight runs.

While a number of other batters from across the world made enormous leaps on the most recent set of rankings, Pakistan captain Babar Azam is still third on the T20I batter rankings and should not be ignored for reclaiming the top spot.

India opener KL Rahul jumps seven spots to 14th on the updated list on the back of his 108 runs from two matches against the Proteas,