ICC Rankings: Tilak Varma one step away from becoming top-ranked T20I batter

India’s Tilak Varma is now only 23 points behind top-ranked T20I batter Travis Head, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on January 29 (Wednesday). The in-form batter now sits at No.2 in the ICC Men's T20I Batting Rankings.

Meanwhile, England’s legspinner Adil Rashid has dethroned West Indies’ Akeal Hosein to become the No.1 T20I bowler once again. India’s in-form spinner Varun Chakravarthy has also climbed 25 places and now sits at No.5 in the ICC Men's T20I Bowling Rankings.

Tilak has been in insane batting form. The left-hander has scores of 18, 72*, 19*, 120* and 107* in his last five T20I innings. Tilak now also holds the record for the most runs (336) scored in T20Is without getting dismissed. A couple of good scores in the last two T20Is against England could help Tilak leapfrog Head, who is busy playing Test cricket in Sri Lanka.

Rashid, who registered figures of 1/15 in the third T20I against India in Rajkot, has been England’s best bowler for a while. Even in the ongoing T20I series, Rashid is the only England bowler with an economy (5.60) of less than seven.

Talking about Chakravarthy, the Indian spinner claimed his second T20I five-wicket haul on January 18 and has been in brilliant wicket-taking form since making his comeback. In his last 10 T20Is, Chakravarthy has picked up 28 wickets.