Deepti Sharma's haul of eight wickets in three games at the Women's T20 Asia Cup has given her a two-spot boost to No. 6 on the ICC's rankings for Women's T20I bowlers, a table headed by her team-mate N Shree Charani, who has seven wickets from her three outings so far. The performance of the two spinners, as well as newbie Prema Rawat, made India the first team to enter the semi-finals of the tournament.
Deepti was the top-ranked bowler in the world in December last year, but has since been upstaged by Shree Charani. England's Sophie Ecclestone, Charlie Dean and Lauren Bell and South Africa's Nonkululeko Mlaba are slotted between Shree Charani and Deepti, but the gap between the No. 1 and the No. 6 is only 70 points.
Along the way, Deepti also moved past Thailand's Thipatcha Putthawong to become the highest wicket-taker in Women's T20Is. She got to the peak after returning 3 for 0 in 1.1 overs against Thailand in the tournament opener for either side. Putthawong, meanwhile, has moved up four slots to 47th after picking up five wickets in three games.
Vice-captain Smriti Mandhana was the highest-ranked India batter at the fifth spot. She scored a century against Hong Kong that took her tally to 18 hundreds across internationals. It was also an innings where she overtook Mithali Raj to be the leading run-getter in women's internationals. Shafali Verma (seventh) and Harmanpreet Kaur (10th) are the other Indian batters in the top ten of the women's T20I rankings.
Nashra Sandhu, the Pakistan left-arm spinner, returned a Pakistan record 6 for 7 against Hong Kong on Monday in the Asia Cup, but still slipped a notch to No. 8 in the latest update.
In the Women's ODI rankings, Dean was the big mover after England's series sweep over Ireland. Among allrounders, Dean moved up one place to ninth, and she also gained two spots to joint 11th among bowlers after picking up three wickets in three games with an economy rate of 4.12.
Among batters, Amy Hunter, the third-highest run-getter across the two teams (with 165 runs) behind Sophia Dunkley (212 runs) and Maia Bouchier (188 runs), made a dash up the table, moving from 20th to 11th.
