Iyer Storms 18 Places Into ICC T20I Top 10 as India Pack the Batting Rankings

Shreyas Iyer's dream week grew even sweeter on Wednesday as the latest ICC T20I player rankings vaulted the India captain 18 places to a career-best seventh, his first-ever appearance in the format's top ten. The 31-year-old earned the leap with a blistering unbeaten 102 from just 43 deliveries in the first T20I against West Indies in Lucknow on October 6, an innings of ten fours and six sixes that dragged India to an eight-wicket win and a 1-0 series lead. With 786 rating points, Iyer now stands alongside Ishan Kishan, who retains the world No. 1 spot on 902 points, Abhishek Sharma in second on 887, and Tilak Varma in tenth on 719 — four Indians inside the top ten of the T20I batting chart, a striking measure of the side's white-ball depth. There were movers elsewhere too: Sherfane Rutherford's half-century in Lucknow lifted him ten places to 37th, India's Vaibhav Sooryavanshi rose eight spots to 46th, and Pakistan's Hasan Nawaz climbed 62 places to 48th after his Asian Games contributions. The second T20I of the series is set for Ranchi on Friday, October 9.