Hasaranga T20 World No.1

Hasaranga T20 World No.1

Wanindu Hasaranga has completed a remarkable ascent to climb to the top of the men’s T20 Player Index standings.

The Sri Lankan legspinner becomes the seventh different player to sit at the summit of the rankings.

Andre Russell, Glenn Maxwell, Jos Buttler, Rashid Khan, Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine have previously topped the tree.

It comes after Hasaranga, 25, took 15 wickets in the inaugural season of the International League T20 for Desert Vipers.

Though he ended up on the wrong side of the result, he scored 55 and took 1 for 25 in the final defeat to Gulf Giants.

Glenn Maxwell, who has been inactive since November after breaking his leg, moves up to No.2 ahead of England captain Jos Buttler.

Buttler drops down one position despite finishing the SA20 as the leading run-scorer with 391 for Pretoria Capitals.

Rashid Khan, who led the standings following back-to-back PSL and IPL title wins last year, is down to No.4.

There is no bigger climber in the top 10 than Aiden Markram, who is up 35 places to No.8 after leading Sunrisers Eastern Cape to SA20 glory. Suryakumar Yadav and Glenn Phillips also feature in the top 10 for the first time.

Of those standout performers from across the T20 game, South Africa speedster Anrich Nortje is up to a career-best No.22, while Will Jacks was rewarded for the best SA20 strike rate of 201.49 with a place at No.16.

The ILT20 in the UAE was fruitful for a handful of English players including leading run-scorer Alex Hales (No.24) and top wicket-taker Chris Jordan (No.19).

Steve Smith’s brief but spectacular heroics in the Big Bash League (346 runs, average 86.50, strike rate 174.74) sees him soar 150 places to No.153.

The tournament’s leading wicket-taker Sean Abbott is the new No.160 and Aaron Hardie, the Perth Scorchers champion, rose 215 places to No.291 after topping the run-scorers chart.

The men’s T20 Player Index remains an ever-growing database of the very best players across the format. The latest recalculation sees 206 new players entered, taking the total number to 3,290 across over 70 different nationalities.

To see the latest men’s Index rankings click here