India leapfrog England to claim No.1 spot in ICC T20I Rankings

Team India have upstaged the Eoin Morgan-led England Cricket Team from the numero-uno spot in the ICC T20I rankings after the Rohit Sharma-led unit swept the West Indies in the recent three-match rubber.

India is followed by 2010 champions England, last year's semi-finalists and 2009 winners, Pakistan, followed by the runners-up of the last T20 World Cup, New Zealand and South Africa.

India's lead over England though is slender one. While both sides have the same number of ranking points (269) during the 39-game cut-off, they have pipped the Eoin Morgan's unit fractionally as they have more points (10,484 as opposed to England's 10,474).

The Men in Blue had a disastrous T20 World Cup campaign, where defeats to arch-rivals Pakistan and perennial nemesis, New Zealand, paved the way for a shocking group-stage exit.

However, they have been on a winning juggernaut ever since that defeat to the BlackCaps on October 31, 2021.

Since then, the Rohit Sharma-led unit has won eight games on the bounce, including back-to-back 3-0 white washes of New Zealand and two-time champions, the West Indies.

In the just-concluded series, India defended an 180+ target in consecutive games after having chased down 158 in the first game.

The most heartening aspect of India's 3-0 triumph, apart from the fact that they won two out of three games after batting first- was that the middle-order rose to the occasion in the last two games after a top-order collapse.

While in the second game, it was the duo of Rishabh Pant and Venkatesh Iyer, the following game saw Suryakumar Yadav and Iyer take the innings by the scruff off its neck and help their team post in excess of 180.

Another positive from the series was the all-round display from Venkatesh Iyer, the death bowling of Harshal Patel and the emergence of leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi.

The hosts will now look to extend their lead over the second-placed England when they lock horns with Sri Lanka in a three-match series, starting February 24.

Meanwhile, reigning T20 world champions, Australia are at the 6th spot following their 4-1 victory over Sri Lanka, while the West Indies are at the 7th spot despite losing 0-3 to the Indians.

The three Asian countries- Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - round off the top-10 at 8,9 and 10 respectively.