Imad Wasim rockets into the top five in T20 ranking

KARACHI: Left-arm spinner Imad Wasim has rocketed into the top five of the ICC Player Rankings for T20 Bowlers after a stellar series against the West Indies, which Pakistan clinched 3-0 in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.

Sohail Tanvir is the other bowler from Pakistan to make an upward movement. He is now in 36th position after rising 19 places following his five wickets in the series.

Imad Wasim was the leading wicket-taker in the series with nine wickets at an economy-rate of under 4.5 per over, which not only earned him the player of the series award but also provided him a jump of 33 places in the latest rankings, which were released on Wednesday.

Imad is now in fourth position, which not only makes him Pakistan’s highest-ranked bowler but just five points behind the West Indies’ Samuel Badree, who has dropped two places to third.

In the batting charts, the only major change outside the top 20 of Johnson Charles and Shoaib Malik who have moved in opposite directions.

Charles has slipped three places to 26th, while Shoaib Malik has gained 10 spots and is now is 35th position following his contribution of 80 runs.

Series top-scorer Babar Azam (101 runs) has leaped 201 places to 66th, while Khalid Latif, who scored 95 runs, has jumped 26 places to break inside the top 100 for the first time in 94th position.

The batting table is headed by India’s Virat Kohli, who leads Australia’s Aaron Finch by 49 points.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has stayed in seventh position with 111 points on the ICC T20I Team Rankings, the West Indies has dropped one place to fourth. New Zealand is the number-one ranked T20I side, followed by India and South Africa.