Watson shines in the latest ICC T20 rankings

Australia’s Shane Watson has jumped four places to a career-high third position in the latest Reliance ICC T20I Player Rankings for batsmen which were released on Wednesday at the end of the group stage of the ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012.

Watson, who won successive Player of the Match awards against Ireland and West Indies, has also garnered his career-best rating of 758.

In addition to his batting exploits (92 runs in two games), Watson has continued to retain seventh position in the Reliance ICC T20I Player Rankings for bowlers and is also the number-one ranked all-rounder in the world.

New Zealand’s wicket-keeper batsman Brendon McCullum has retained his number-one batting spot with Chris Gayle in second place. McCullum’s knock of 123 against Bangladesh, the highest in the history of Twenty20 International cricket to date, has also helped him achieve a career-best rating of 849.

The batsmen from Asia have made the most impressive movements in the batting table ahead of the Super Eight stage which starts in Pallekele on 27 September.

Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara has broken back into the top 10 and now sits in eighth position (up by three places).

Others to make upward movements are Virat Kohli in 19^th (up by 10 places), Rohit Sharma in 26^th (up by 12 places), Nasir Jamshed in 32^nd (up by 51 places), Shakib Al Hasan in 37^th (up by 29 places) and Imran Nazir in 43^rd (up by 42 places).

In the Reliance ICC T20Is Player Rankings for bowlers, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka boast three bowlers each inside the top 20 while Pakistan has three bowlers inside the top 10 with Saeed Ajmal sitting on top of the tree, followed by Shahid Afridi in fifth (up by one place) and captain Mohammad Hafeez in ninth (up by two place).

South Africa’s Dale Steyn has jumped 10 places to claim 11^th position, while Harbhajan Singh, who claimed four for 12 against England, India’s best figures in a Twenty20 International, has broken into the top 20 and is now at 17^th place (up five).

Others big movers are Tim Southee in 16^th (up by eight places), Irfan Pathan in 23^rd (up by eight places), Sunil Narine in 44^th (up by 13 places), Brad Hogg in 51^st (up by 25 places), Pat Cummins in 54^th (up by 18 places) and Jacques Kallis in 65^th (up by 22 places).

In the all-rounders’ list, Shakib has vaulted four places to fifth while Marlon Samuels in 20^th (up by five), James Franklin in 23^rd (up by six) and Kevin O’Brien in 28^th (up by 10) have also made upward movements.

The player rankings will now be updated at the end of the Super Eight stage on 3 October.

Meanwhile, South Africa heads into the Super Eight stage of the ICC World Twenty20 2012 as the number-one ranked team on the Reliance ICC T20 Championship table. England after losing its Group A match to India by 90 runs has slipped to second spot with 124 ratings points.

India has made the biggest improvement, having jumped four places to claim third position while West Indies has fallen four places to eighth spot.

Reliance ICC T20I Championship (as of 26 September, before the Super Eight stage of ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012)

Rank (+/-) Team Rating

1 (+1) South Africa 134

2 (-1) England 124

3 (+4) India 116

4 (-1) Sri Lanka 115

5 (+1) Pakistan 114

6 (-1) New Zealand 107

7 (+2) Australia 104

8 (-4) West Indies 102

9 (-1) Bangladesh 85

10 (-) Ireland 82

11 (-) Zimbabwe 44

Not ranked as fewer than eight T20I matches played since August 2010

Afghanistan 76

Netherlands 73

Scotland 67

Canada 11

Kenya 2