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What's the story?
Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan has broken into the top 15 of the ICC T20I Rankings for batsmen after scoring 84 runs in two T20Is against Sri Lanka. Besides, the Indian fast bowling duo of Navdeep Saini and Shardul Thakur have also improved their positions in the T20I Rankings for bowlers.
Also see - India vs Australia schedule 2020
The background
Dhawan was out of the Indian team because of an injury that he picked up while playing at the domestic level. In his absence, KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma opened the innings for India. However, as Rohit preferred to skip the Sri Lanka series and Dhawan was fit to go, the left-handed batsman made his comeback to the national team.
Besides, injuries to Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar allowed Navdeep Saini and Shardul Thakur to play more T20I cricket. Both the pacers have emerged as wicket-taking options for India in the shortest format of the game.
The heart of the matter
As per the latest ICC T20I Rankings, Rahul is the top-ranked Indian batsman with 760 points at the sixth position. Indian skipper Virat Kohli has risen to the ninth position with 683 points, while Dhawan has moved from 16th to 15th spot with 612 points. From Sri Lanka, Dhananjaya de Silva has jumped 72 places to grab the 115th spot.
In the bowling chart, Sri Lanka's Lakshan Sandakan, who took three wickets in the final match, has achieved the 29th rank with his career-best rating of 552 points. The returning Jasprit Bumrah is back in the top 40, while Saini and Thakur have accomplished their career-best rating points of 373 and 361 respectively. Saini has entered the top 100 for the first time in his career, while Thakur is in the 92nd spot.
What's next?
The Men in Blue will next be in action against Australia in a three-match ODI series starting from 14th January.
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