Online Sports Desk
Asian Games 2026: T20 World Cup champions Team India will open their campaign in the Asian Games 2026 with a quarterfinal clash on September 28, a week after India women’s team has retained their gold medal. After a nervy-clash against Japan this week where Abhishek Sharma was dismissed for a golden duck, the battle for No. 1 rank in the ICC T20I batting rankings will resume again at Aichi-Nagoya.
Indian opener Abhishek Sharma has closed the gap to world No. 1 batter Ishan Kishan to take back the top spot which he held for most of last couple of years. The gap between the two Sunrisers Hyderabad cricketers is only 11 points now with Kishan at the top with 904 points and Abhishek in second spot with 893 points.
Abhishek Sharma, who was retained for Rs 14 crore by Kavya Maran’s SRH ahead of IPL 2026, had a brilliant run in the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan with scores of 82, 39 and 108 in the three knocks in India’s 3-0 whitewash at New Delhi. The 26-year-old Punjab batter blasted his 3rd T20I ton in the final game and will look to carry his form into the Asian Games 2026 next week.
World No. 1 batter Ishan Kishan also had an impressive run in the Afghanistan series with scores of 42 and 38 not out in the first two matches but was dismissed for 10 in the third game. But both batters were dismissed cheaply in the historic first-ever T20I match against Japan on Tuesday.
Shreyas Iyer makes big move
Indian captain Shreyas Iyer made the biggest jump in the ICC T20I batting rankings. The Punjab Kings batter climbed up 7 places to rise to the 22nd spot in the rankings before Asian Games 2026. Iyer was named the ‘Player of the Match’ in the low-scoring clash against Japan with a top score of 16 in a five-overs-a-side contest.
Iyer, who was retained for Rs 26.75 crore by Preity Zinta’s Punjab Kings, will be looking to retain the gold medal won by Ruturaj Gaikwad’s side in the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou. The 31-year-old Indian captain has scored 1479 runs in 65 T20I matches with 10 fifties.
Sikandar Raza close to toppling Azmatullah Omarzai
Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza is closing in on the world No. 1 ranking for ODI all-rounders, which is currently occupied by Afghanistan’s Azmatullah Omarzai. Raza is now in second place with 276 points after he finished the three-match ODI series against Australia as the highest run-scorer apart from claiming three wickets as well.
The Zimbabwe all-rounder scored a 45 and an unbeaten 81, respectively, in the final two games of the series. His antics with the bat have also propelled him by five spots up to 24th on the men’s ODI Batting Rankings. Meanwhile, Australian pacer Nathan Ellis, who ended the series as the leading wicket-taker, rose three spots to 17th in the ICC ODI Bowling Rankings.
