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Suryakumar Yadav Still No.1 T20I Batter; Babar Azam, Rizwan Inch Closer

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Pakistan T20 skipper Babar Azam and his opening partner, wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan will have a golden opportunity to leapfrog the No.1 ranked T20I batter Suryakumar Yadav when the home side locks horns with New Zealand in the forthcoming 5-match series.

Azam moved to the 3rd spot in the latest update of the ICC T20I rankings for batters, leapfrogging South Africa's Aiden Markam and Kiwi opener Devon Conway, who missed the recent T20I series against Sri Lanka due to his IPL commitments.

Babar currently boasts of 755 rating points, and he is only superseded by his fellow opener, Rizwan (811 points) and India's Mr 360, Suryakumar Yadav, who is sitting comfortably at the top with 906 rating points.

With Surya not set to play a T20I over the next two months due to the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL 2023), Babar and Rizwan will have a great opportunity on their hands to close the gap with Sky against a depleted New Zealand bowling attack in the five-match rubber, starting April 14 in Lahore.

Regarding T20I rankings for bowlers, Sri Lanka's mystery spinner Maheesh Theekshana rose to his career-best rating points and joint-5th position following his impressive showing against New Zealand.

His teammate, wrist spinner Wanindu Hasaranga has dropped two places to the 4th spot after a disappointing display in New Zealand, while Afghanistan's left-arm seamer Fazalhaq Farooqi and Australia's Josh Hazlewood have both moved to the 3rd spot.

In terms of Test match rankings for batters, former Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim jumped five places to move to the 17th spot after his brilliant ton against Ireland last week.

His teammates- left-arm spin duo of Taijul Islam and Shakib Al Hasan- have also been rewarded with the latter moving to the 20th position from 23, and the former claiming the 26th spot.