ICC Women’s T20 Rankings | Shafali Verma catapults to number one spot

India’s teenage sensation Shafali Verma’s blistering start to the World T20 campaign - scoring 29, 39, 46 and 47 in her four knocks at a strike rate of 161 - has seen her claim top spot in the latest ICC T20 batting rankings for Women. Shafali, who was ranked 20th last week, has incredibly jumped 19 places to claim top spot, leapfrogging Suzie Bates, Beth Mooney and Sophie Devine. The 16-year-old is only the second Indian to hold the spot, after former skipper Mithali Raj, who scored over 2300 runs in a decorated T20I career that spanned 13 years. 

Smriti Mandhana, who has scored just 38 runs in her three outings in this World Cup so far, has meanwhile slipped two places to sixth, while Jemimah Rodrigues has also seen herself slip to ninth. Jemimah, in contrast to Smriti, has had a decent World Cup thus far, scoring 85 runs at an average close to 30, but has failed to match the form that once propelled her to the seventh spot. 

England’s Sophie Ecclestone, who is the second-highest wicket-taker in the ongoing World Cup with 8 wickets to her name in just four matches, has risen to the top of the bowlers’ rankings, with Australia's Megan Schutt and South Africa’s Shabnim Ismail occupying the second and third spots respectively. The list, however, features three Indians, with the spin trio of Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav and Poonam Yadav placed fifth, seventh and eighth respectively.