Sports

Imad Wasim rises to second in T20 bowlers' rankings

Left-armer only has Imran Tahir between himself and the summit

Sports Desk April 05, 2017

PHOTO: REUTERS

Pakistan international Imad Wasim has soared to number two in the latest ICC rankings for T20I bowlers, with just South African Imran Tahir standing between him and the summit.

The 28-year-old has had a stellar season with the ball in the shortest format, grabbing 23 wickets in just 19 matches at a stingy economy rate of just 5.83, which has seen him climb up the rankings.

Wasim, however, will have to be careful as snapping at his heels at number three is Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who has been equally impressive in T20Is these past 12 months.

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While Wasim's ascension will be music to the ears of local cricket fans, they will be a bit disappointed to find that no Pakistani batsmen are in the top 10 for batsmen in T20 list.

Emerging talent Babar Azam features at 27, followed by Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad in 28^th and 29^th place respectively.

Azam did manage to break into the top 10 of the ODI batting list, featuring at number nine, eight shy of top-ranked AB de Villiers.

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T20 topper Tahir also tops the ODI bowling list, which again has no Pakistani entrants within the top 10, with the banned Muhammad Irfan occupying the 18^th spot.

Back among the all-rounders cadre and featuring high is Muhammad Hafeez, who sits in third place on the ODI all-rounders ranking — an assortment topped by Bangladesh' Shakib Alhassan.

The Test batting ranking continues to be topped by Australia captain Steve Smith, with the highest-placed Pakistani players being Azhar Ali (7) and Younus Khan (8). The five-day's bowling list, meanwhile, features Ravendra Jadeja at top, with Pakistani leg-spinner Yasir Shah featuring at number 16 and Wahab Riaz three adrift in 19.

COMMENTS (1)

israr | 7 years ago | Reply bowling ok he will be worked out unless he bowls a delivery early on that moves away from right handers that will give him alot of wkts also his batting needs to improve and sarfaraz needs to send him at no 6 or 5 in odi so he can get more of the deliveries and that way we can improve quickly as a team. Nawaz is another alrounder that needs to be played more in t20s top of the order he is a dangerous player i remember him scoring 180 batting at 4 i think in domestic odi and he has been a regular performer in t20s as well i dont understand y he is not played a single game in wi tour? really i need some explanation

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