Shree Charani rises to No. 1 in T20I bowling rankings


Shree Charani, an India left-arm spinner, has surpassed England's Linsey Smith to become the No. 1 ranked T20I bowler for the first time in her career. Charani, who made her debut for India just over a year ago, currently leads the T20 World Cup in wicket-taking with 10 in three games. She was India's best bowler in the loss to South Africa, finishing with 3 for 24. In the victories against Pakistan and Netherlands, she was 3 for 21 and 4 for 19. She has 38 wickets in 23 T20I matches at an economy of 7.32 so far. After a relatively uneventful start to the T20 World Cup, Smith has moved down to third in the rankings, while her England teammate and fellow spinner Charlie Dean has moved up to second after taking five wickets in three matches. In the T20I bowling rankings, another spinner from England, Sophie Ecclestone, rose four spots to fourth, while West Indies captain Hayley Matthews rose nine places to 11th, Australia fast bowler Kim Garth rose 25 rungs to 20th, Pakistan captain Fatima Sana rose 10 rungs to 25th, and Ireland allrounder Orla Prendergast rose 10 rungs to 26th. Georgia Voll, Australia's opener, remained the top batter despite scoring just 62 runs in three games at the T20 World Cup. India captain Harmanpreet Kaur moved up one spot to 10th, and India's opener Shafali Verma moved up one spot to sixth. Matthews remained at the top of the all-rounders list, followed by New Zealand captain Melie Kerr. This position did not change.