Shaheen Afridi’s 2/21 in the one-off T20I against Australia propels him to No. 10 in the MRF Tyres ICC T20I Player Rankings. Australia crossed the line with five balls to spare, despite the best efforts of the ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year 2021 in the penultimate over.
Babar Azam, the ICC Men’s Player of the Month for March, remained at the top of the batters’ rankings, but Mohammad Rizwan, the ICC Men’s T20I Player of the Year 2021, fell to third place.
Josh Hazlewood, who did not play in the game, fell to third place, with Adil Rashid moving up to second.
Dipendra Singh Airee of Nepal improved in all sectors following the conclusion of the tri-series, which also included PNG and Malaysia. He was named Player of the Series after a fantastic all-round performance in the final (54* and 4/18). He improved 13 places to No.38 among hitters, 47 places to No.135 among bowlers, and ten places to No.10 among all-rounders.
With a brilliant all-round performance against Uganda, JJ Smit of Namibia broke into the top five for T20I all-rounders. He batted first and scored 71 off 35 balls, finishing with scores of 6/10, including a hat-trick.
Following the conclusion of the series between South Africa and Bangladesh, there was some movement in the Test player rankings as well. Keshav Maharaj, who shined with the bat and the ball in the last game and was named Player of the Match and Player of the Series, is now ranked 21st among bowlers and 13th among all-rounders.
Simon Harmer, his companion in crime and another spinner, gained 26 places to No. 54 in the bowlers rankings. With 13 wickets, the off-spinner was only second to Maharaj in the series in terms of wicket-taking (16).
In the second innings, the two spinners combined to take all of Bangladesh’s wickets, reducing them to 80 runs as they swept the visitors 2-0.
