At St. Kitts on Tuesday, India thrashed West Indies in the third T20 match by seven wickets. And the hero of the match was India’s new opener, Suryakumar Yadav. The batter played a match-defining innings to lead the visitors to a comprehensive win. He made a 26-ball half-century and took all the opposition bowlers to the cleaners.
He made 76 runs off 44 balls, including eight boundaries and four sixes. Thus, he also the “Man of the Match” for his innings. However, later on, he was also rewarded in the latest ICC T20I batsmen rankings. As a result, he jumped three places up to grab the second spot in the ICC rankings.
The Indian batter is only behind the Pakistan skipper, Babar Azam, who has been on top for more than one and a half years. But now, there is a possibility that SKY could dethrone him from the top position and go to the top of the rankings.
Babar has 818 ranking points, while SKY is second with 816 points. He has also achieved the third highest rating points ever by an Indian batter, after Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Notably, Pakistan will only play their next T20 match against India in the Asia Cup 2022 on August 28.
On the other hand, India has two more games against the West Indies in the ongoing five-match series. And with the form SKY is showing, he just needs two more good innings to totally change the tables. If he succeeds in making two good scores in the remaining matches, there are bright chances that he will gain the top batsmen rankings.
He has been in good form in this ongoing series and has scored 111 runs in three matches at an incredible strike rate of more than 165. SKY is also the first batsman to have an average of over 40 and a strike rate of over 170 (minimum 500 runs).
After Suryakumar Yadav, there is no Indian batter in the top ten. Ishan Kishan is at 14, while the Indian skipper is at 16. India will play the West in the remaining two games on Saturday and Sunday.
