Virat Kohli and KL Rahul climb the ICC T20I batting rankings after Australia tour

As India registered a comprehensive victory in the three-match T20I series against Australia by 2-1 to continue their winning streak in the shortest format of the game, skipper Virat Kohli and limited-overs vice-captain KL Rahul saw a jump in their standings in International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s T20I Batting rankings.

Kohli had a phenomenal run in three T20 Internationals against Australia. He smashed 134 runs in two games at an average of 44.66 and a strike rate of 142.55. His match-defining knock of 40 runs in 24 deliveries helped the Men in Blue in successfully chasing a massive target of 195 in the second T20I.

Meanwhile, the captain produced a stunning knock of 85 runs off 61 deliveries including 4 boundaries and 3 maximums in the final game but failed to take his team home in another run chase as no other batsman supported him. A good T20I series with the willow resulted in Virat Kohli climbing to the eighth position in the latest ICC T20I batting rankings from ninth position.

Virat, with 697 points in his kitty, swapped places with Afghanistan’s left-handed batsman Hazratullah Zazai, who slipped to one position down to No. 9 with 676 points. Kohli is the only Indian batsman to feature in Top 10 in ICC Batting rankings in all the three formats of the game.

KL Rahul overtakes Aaron Finch to acquire third spot

Apart from Virat Kohli, the other Indian batsman in this prestigious list is wicket-keeper KL Rahul. The newly appointed limited-overs vice-captain for the Australia series, Rahul moved up to No 3 position in ICC rankings from No. 4. Though Rahul had a lukewarm series against Australia with the willow, he managed to overtake Australia’s limited-overs skipper Aaron Finch to acquire the third spot.

Playing in all the three T20Is against Australia, Rahul registered scores of 51, 30 and 0 respectively. Aaron Finch also featured in two out of the three games but could manage only 35 runs. The wicket-keeper batsman now has 816 points to his name while Finch has 808 points.

Though KL didn’t have a good outing in the Australia tour, he has some marvellous numbers to his name in the shortest format of the game in 2020. He featured in 11 T20I matches this year scoring 404 runs at an average of 44.88.