India’s rising star in T20 cricket Suryakumar Yadav rose high in the latest rankings and jumped to the 2nd spot, at the same time, surpassing Pakistan’s wicketkeeper and batter Mohammad Rizwan. With that Surya has closed in on the gap between him and No 1 in the ranking Babar Azam. Surya has gained two spots to number 2 and sits with 794 points. Rizwan has slipped one spot to be at No 3 with 794 points. Babar has 816 points and sits atop. This is a hige achievement for Suryakumar who made made his international debut at the start of last year only and his rapid recent rise has come on the back of a century against England in Nottingham last month and a stylish half-century against West Indies on Tuesday (August 2).
The Mumbai Indians batter finished as the Player of the Match in the 3rd T20 vs West Indies at St Kitts, stroking 76 off 44 balls, that included 8 fours and 4 sixes. In this five-match series vs West Indies, Surya has been opening the innings for India, an experiment that has worked so far.Â
Pakistan fans angry with Surya replacing Rizwan in ICC rankings
Some of the Pakistani fans didn’t take Surya’s rapid rise to the No 2 spot lightly and blamed ICC for maintaining dual standards in putting in place these rankings. The key arguement is that it took Rizwan a long time to reach to the No 2 spot but Surya, who made his debut only last year, has been pushed to top 2 after he played only a few good innings in T20Is.Â
Check out the reactions of the fans below.
When they can’t compete they cheat__#ICCRankings pic.twitter.com/i6aqBCHCXc
â Kamran Ashraf (@kamii9T) August 3, 2022
@ICC Shame Shame Shame
Always biased always.Indian players perform in merely 2,3 matches and they are on Top,while Pakistani despite performing whole year don’t get much points#ICCRankings
â I V A R (@Mushi_oye5) August 3, 2022
Rizwan scored 1,326 in 2021 in T20I, he failed to top but an indian batter SK Yadav avgs 38 in 20 inns has overtaken him with just a 117 in a losing cause & 76.
Rizwan avgs 50.4 in 45 inns.
It had to happen as @ICC can’t bear us at the top.
DUAL STANDARDS !!#ICCRankings pic.twitter.com/wLSdZiVGmw
â TALHA RASHID ___ (@talharashid003) August 3, 2022
Not to forget, the India vs West Indies action now moves to United States of America, in Florida where the last 2 T20s will take place, on August 6 and 7. Â