Babar Azam climbs to fourth in T20I rankings, Suryakumar Yadav holds firm grip on top spot

Babar Azam (Pic: AFP)

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam has closed the gap on India dynamo Suryakumar Yadav at the top of the ICC T20I rankings with his team managing to draw the latest series against New Zealand.

Babar was Pakistan's leading run-scorer during the enthralling series that ended tied at 2-2, with the right-hander scoring a half-century in the fifth T20I of the series to finish with a total of 125 runs from four innings at the top of his side's batting order. Pakistan won the fifth T20I with the first match being washed out due to rain.

His performance helped him improve one spot to fourth on the updated list of ICC T20I rankings for batters and boost his rating by a total of 10 points to 763, with Suryakumar now just 98 rating points ahead of the Pakistan skipper ahead of ICC Men's T20 World Cup which starts on June 1.

Babar's Pakistan teammate Fakhar Zaman also made good ground in the latest rankings update. The attacking left-hander has improved 10 places to 62nd place on the back of his 104 runs in the series.

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New Zealand's biggest eye-catcher was Tim Seifert, with the experienced right-hander jumping seven places to equal seventh after compiling 85 runs for the series at a decent strike rate of 144.06.

There was also a boost for Pakistan and New Zealand players on the updated list for T20I bowlers, with pace spearhead Shaheen Afridi jumping three places to 14th following his eight scalps across four matches against the Kiwis.

Meanwhile, the BCCI on Tuesday announced the Rohit Sharma-led squad after a meeting between secretary Jay Shah and chief selector Ajit Agarkar in Ahmedabad. Wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson and spinner Yuzvendra Chahal were on Tuesday named in India's provisional squad for the T20 World Cup 2024 in the Americas but star batter Shubman Gill and the big-hitting Rinku Singh found themselves relegated to the reserves group.

(With agency inputs)