'On top of the World' - India regain top spot in T20I rankings after six years

In what comes as pleasant news to all the Indian fans, team India has become the number one ranked T20I side in the world. They climbed to the helm after defeating West Indies in the three-match T20I series. India now have 269 rating points. They are followed by England, who too have the same number of points, Pakistan (266), New Zealand (255), South Africa (253) and Australia (249). West Indies are placed seventh with 235 points.

Advertisment

It is to be noted that they became the number one side after six years. It was under MS Dhoni in 2016 when India held the reigns in this format. Besides, the 2007-20-20 World Cup champions have been unbeaten in their last nine games. As far as the series against the men in maroon is concerned, the Asian side whitewashed them.

After being asked to bat first in the final T20I, the Sharma-led side managed to score 184, owing to a Suryakumar Yadav special. The middle-order batter scored 65 off just 31 balls. 

The Pollard-led side were never really in the chase. Despite a brilliant 61 by Nicholas Pooran, the Windies fell short of the target by 17 runs. Rohit Sharma was a happy captain and went on to praise his men after the completion of the match.

"The team that used to chase, there are not many people here from that squad. We wanted to bat first and chase as well. Because our middle order is fairly new. Happy with the series. Pretty much got everything that we wanted. We do understand we are very young as a team. We are still a good chasing side, but a lot of the players are missing. So we wanted the guys to understand how to bat in pressure situations. It was pleasing to see guys bailing the team out from situations. Good sign moving forward as a group and something to be proud of. The biggest take away from the ODIs was the middle order making it count," said Rohit Sharma.

"I was very impressed with our seam bowling in ODIs. And even here. Harshal is new. Avesh is on debut. Shardul is in and out. So challenge for us was to give them game time and see how they respond. When you play against a team like West Indies, you can test your batting and bowling. They bat very deep. It was a good challenge to defend in both games. Few guys miss out for the Sri Lanka series because we want to keep them fresh. But we have the World Cup in mind and we are trying to give game time for individuals. Sri Lanka will be a different challenge. But I am not someone who looks at the opposition, I would like to see what we can do as a team," he added.