By helping the Indian team win the Asia Cup, India’s Abhishek Sharma also extended his dominance on the ratings charts by putting daylight between himself at the top of the T20 run-scorers standings. Sharma has widened the gap between himself and the second-ranked T20 batter in the world, England’s Phil Salt, by 82 rating points. In the process of becoming the top scorer at the Asia Cup, the India opener, who was adjudged player of the tournament, also broke a record that has lasted for almost five years by reaching the highest-ever rating of 931 points in the ICC Rankings. The 25-year-old overtook the previous best rating of 919 points, which was achieved by England right-hander Dawid Malan in 2020, the ICC said in a statement. Sharma only made his international debut last year, but has put together an amazing record amassing a total of 314 runs at an average of 44.85 in the seven Asia Cup games. India’s Asia Cup final match-winner Tilak Varma cemented his spot in third place in the batter rankings after his 213 runs at the Asia Cup. He is followed by Sri Lanka’s Pathum Nissanka. India's Sanju Samson is up eight spots to 31st also made gains following some impressive efforts at the same tournament. Meanwhile, India’s Varun Chakravarthy has also continued his stay on top of the bowling charts in the latest ICC T20 International Rankings issued on Wednesday. Chakravarthy remained the No.1 ranked bowler in T20I cricket after seven scalps at the Asia Cup, with teammate Kuldeep Yadav (up nine spots to 12th), Pakistan's Shaheen Afridi (up 12 places to equal 13th) and Bangladesh tweaker Rishad Hossain (up six rungs to 20th) among the big movers on the latest rankings. India missed out on a clean sweep of rankings charts after Hardik Pandya, who missed out on the Asia Cup final due to an injury, was dethroned at the top of the T20I all-rounder rankings by Pakistan's Saim Ayub. Ayub managed to score just 37 runs after playing in all seven innings for Pakistan cricket team and got just eight wickets in seven games. Despite this, Ayub rose four places overall to overtake Pandya in the No.1 spot for all-rounders. Pandya dropped to second and eight rating points behind Ayub, while Pakistan's Mohammad Nawaz (up four spots to 13th) and Sri Lanka's Charith Asalanka (up three places to equal 30th) were the other players to make ground in the all-rounder category this week.
