Stats: Rashid Khan becomes the youngest to top ranking charts in any format

Rashid Khan turned out to be one of the most wanted players for the T20 franchises across the globe due to his exploits with the white ball. The leg-spinner scalped 135 wickets in the 91 T20 matches taking a wicket every 16 balls he bowls by conceding less than run a ball. The Afghanistan players’ performances helped him to gain a contract in the BBL where he ended as the joint leading wicket-taker in his debut season with 18 wickets.

His record in the ODI format is even more effective as he bagged 87 wickets in the 37 matches he played so far at an average of 13.26 taking a wicket every 20 balls. His wickets tally is 13 more than the next best player with most wickets after 37 ODIs. Rashid bagged 16 wickets in the recently concluded 5-match ODI series against Zimbabwe which was the 2nd time he took these many wickets in an ODI series as he accounted for 16 wickets in the 2017 Ireland series also. Thus, he became the first player to take 16+ wickets in bilateral series twice.

Rashid, with those 16 wickets, achieved a career rating of 787 points in the ODI Rankings for the Bowlers to become the No.1 along with India’s Jasprit Bumrah. Thus, Rashid became the first player from Afghanistan to top in any category in any format of the ICC rankings. Trent Boult stands next to Rashid and Bumrah in these rankings with a difference of 48 rating points. Rashid Khan is also the 2nd ranked bowler in the T20Is with 717 rating with only one point behind Mitchell Santner (718 rating).

At the age of 19 years and 152 days, Rashid Khan became the youngest player to top the ODI Rankings for the Bowlers. The previous youngest player was Saqlain Mushtaq who became No.1 bowler in 1998 at the age of 21 years and 13 days. In fact, Rashid is also the youngest player to become the No.1 in any category in any format of the Men’s cricket with Mushtaq being the previous youngest. Windies’ Stafanie Taylor topped Women’s T20I rankings for the batters at the age of 18 years and 332 days in 2010.

Youngest players to top the ODI Bowlers Rankings:

Youngest players to top any Ranking chart in Men’s Cricket:

(Stats as on February 19, 2018)