India batter Tilak Varma has reached a career-best second position in the latest ICC T20I rankings for batters, released on Wednesday. The left-hander rose to the second spot after his unbeaten 72* in the second T20I against England. Tilak, who is 22 years and 82 days at the time of reaching second position, is only 23 rating points behind top-ranked Travis Head and has a good chance of breaking Pakistan’s Babar Azam’s world record by becoming the youngest to top the T20I batting rankings. The mark is currently held by Babar Azam, who was 23 years and 105 days old when he went top for the first time in January 2018.
Tilak’s 832 rating points are the fourth-best by an Indian batter in the format after Suryakumar Yadav, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul. The 22-year-old was dismissed for the first time in five innings when Adil Rashid produced a beauty to breach his defence in the third T20I in Rajkot on Tuesday. Before that, Tilak had scores of 107*, 120* (both against South Africa) and 19* and 72* against England.
He currently has 725 runs in 23 T20Is at an average of 55.76, scored at a strike rate of 155.24 with two centuries to his name. Tilak will have a chance to past Babar and topple Head from the top spot by scoring big in the remaining two T20Is against England.
In the bowling rankings, England’s wrist-spinner Adil Rashid has ended Akeal Hosein’s 44-day stay at the top after taking one for 14 and one for 15 in the second and third matches of the series, completing his four overs each time to help England narrow the lead to 2-1.
