Pakistan captain Babar Azam has managed to hold tight to his mantle as the No.1 positioned T20I batter in spite of the fact a large group of India stars took goliath strides on the latest MRF Tires ICC Men’s Player Rankings.

India cruides to a 4-1 series victory in the recently-completed T20I series against the West Indies and a flock of their best performers cut into Babar’s lead at the highest point of the player rankings.

The ICC announced the latest set of rankings on Wednesday and Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant were among the biggest movers as the race for the top ranking hots up ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia later this year.

Iyer hit a noteworthy half-century during the fifth and last match of the series in Florida and was duly rewarded by sprinting six places to 19th overall on the batter rankings.

Pant finished the series as the equal second leading run-scorer on 115 runs, with his quickfire 44 in the fourth match seeing the left-hander jump seven spots to 59th.

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• Emerging opener Suryakumar Yadav was the leading run-scorer during the series with 135 runs, yet the decision to rest him for the last match implied he missed the opportunity to beat Babar at the head of proceedings.

• Yadav stays in second place on the T20I rankings, with Babar currently holding a lead of 13 rating points ahead of the much awaited meeting among India and Pakistan at the Asia Cup in Dubai later this month.

• The series against West Indies also saw a meeting of India’s bowlers rewarded with big moves up the latest T20I rankings for bowlers.

• Young spinner Ravi Bishnoi was India’s leading wicket-taker during the series with eight scalps and that helped the 21-year-old jump 50 places to 44th overall on the latest list for bowlers.

A new No.1!

A busy week in ODI cricket has led to a number of changes in the @MRFWorldwide ICC Men's Player Rankings.

Details 👇

— ICC (@ICC) July 20, 2022

• Team-mates Avesh Khan, Axar Patel, and Kuldeep Yadav were additionally big movers, while veteran quick Bhuvneshwar Kumar dropped one spot to 9th after only three wickets during the West Indies series.

• South Africa’s recent 2-0 series win over Ireland away from home also saw a large group of their players rewarded on the latest T20I rankings, with in-form opener Reeza Hendricks climbing two spots to thirteenth on the list for batters.

• Spinner Keshav Maharaj climbs 10 spots to 18th overall on the bowler rankings, while South Africa partner Dwaine Pretorius bounces seven places to 26th on the all-rounder’s list.

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There were no changes in the Test rankings with no red-ball matches held over the last week, while there were a few minor movements in the ODI positions following the first two matches of the series between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.

In-form all-rounder Sikandar Raza has been a shining light for Zimbabwe lately and the experienced 36-year-old has taken a few eye-catching actions on the latest ODI rankings.

Raza has scored back to back unbeaten centuries against Bangladesh and that has seen the right-hander hop 10 spots to 29th on the batter rankings and an impressive 7 places to fourth on the all-rounder list.