Deepti Sharma Becomes World No.1 in ICC Women’s T20I Bowling Rankings

Star India all-rounder Deepti Sharma on Tuesday rose to the top of the ICC women’s T20I bowling rankings for the first time in her career. The 28-year-old’s haul of 1 for 20 in the opening T20I of their home series against Sri Lanka in Visakhapatnam was enough for the off-spinner to overtake Australia fast bowler Annabel Sutherland, pipping her by one rating point to sit at the top of the table with 737 points.

Pacer Arundhati Reddy has climbed up five places to be 36th while spinner Shree Charani is up 19 places to 69th. Jemimah Rodrigues, who was adjudged the player of the match in Visakhapatnam for her unbeaten 69 off 44 balls, moved up five spots to ninth among T20I batters while vice-captain Smriti Mandhana continues to be the top ranked Indian, occupying the third spot. Shefali Verma who has moved down a spot to 10.

On the other hand, South Africa skipper Laura Wolvaardt has replaced Mandhana as the No.1 batter in the women’s ODI batting rankings. Wolvaardt slammed successive centuries in the second and third matches of their home series against Ireland - 124 and 100 not out - to run up a nine-point lead over the India opener and reach a career-best 820 rating points.

In the ODI rankings, Ireland captain Gaby Lewis has advanced four places to 18th after knocks of 45 and 64. Her team-mate Amy Hunter has moved up from 31st to 28th while Sune Luus (up seven places to 34th) and Dane van Niekerk (up 24 places to 95th) are the other South African players to make progress.