India Women's Shafali Verma climbs to the top of ICC T20I Rankings
India Women's 17-year-old opener Shafali Verma climbed to the top of the ICC T20I rankings for women batters. The youngster has put in some fine batting performances in the ongoing T20I series against South Africa and replaces Australia's Beth Mooney at the top of the rankings chart.
The 17-year-old opener first breached the No. 1 mark after her impressive performances in the Women's T20I World Cup in Australia last year. She has now re-gains the top spot after a string of good scores in T20I cricket.
After a match-winning knock of 70 against India, South Africa's Lizelle Lee has also jumped three-spots to 11th place. The South African opener had earlier lost her top spot in the ODI rankings to England’s Tammy Beaumont, and is currently ranked second on the ODI batters' list.
Laura Wolvaardt climbed five places to 24th after leading her side to victory against India. Captain Sune Luus and Nadine de Klerk are the other South Africans to move up in the latest ICC Rankings.
India Women players gain big in the latest ICC Rankings
While Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues retained their 7th and 9th batting ranks respectively, Deepti Sharma jumped up four places in the batters' rankings. Youngster Richa Ghosh also skyrocketed 59 places to become the 85th ranked batter.
All-rounder Harleen Deol advanced in the batters as well as the bowlers categories. She went up 262 spots to 99th place amongst batters and went on to grab the 146th spot amongst bowlers.
India Women set to face South Africa Women in the 3rd T20I on Tuesday
Down 2-0 in the series, India Women are playing for pride in the final ODI. South Africa Women have looked in great touch on the tour. With Lizelle Lee and Laura Wolvaardt in sizzling form, the South Africans will eye a clean sweep heading into their final assignment of the tour.
India Women, on the other hand, have done moderately well given Harmanpreet Kaur's absence. The Indian youngsters have come out all guns blazing, with Harleen Deol making a great impression in both matches.