India opener KL Rahul leads a pack of India players who have shot up the ICC Men’s T20I Player Rankings after their team stormed to a 5-0 series win in New Zealand.
Rahul’s series topping aggregate of 224 runs has lifted him four places to a career best-equaling second place while Rohit Sharma (up three places to 10th), Shreyas Iyer (up 63 places to 55th) and Manish Pandey (up 12 places to 58th) are others advancing in the latest rankings. Pakistan's Babar Azam leads the tally with 879 points.
Rahul has been impressive with both bat and behind the stumps ever since he took over keeping duties from a concussed Rishabh Pant in the ODI against Australia in Mumbai.
Rahul averages in excess of 50 in his last 10 T20I innings, and is thriving in his new role for India. He finished the New Zealand T20Is as the highest run-getter, for which he was named Player of the Series.
India notched up a rare 5-0 whitewash over New Zealand with a seven-run win in the fifth and final T20 International and Rahul said the team’s ability to find answers in difficult situations was the key to its success.
“I think it is a winning habit that we have cultivated wherein we want to win every time we step onto the ground. As a team we keep believing in each other. Leading up to the World Cup, there were a few strategies that we wanted to try out. It just keeps giving us more and more confidence to keep going around," he said.
India will next play three ODIs against New Zealand beginning on February 5 and Rahul said they will follow the same process to achieve success in the 50-over format.
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