India’s Deepti Sharma reclaims career-best 3rd rank in T20I bowlers rankings

India’s Deepti Sharma jumped up three spots to reclaim her career-best third rank in the latest women’s T20I bowlers rankings. The 25-year-old also reached the same rank in the all-rounders ranking list.

Deepti Sharma reclaims third spot in T20 rankings (AP)

By India Today Web Desk: India’s Deepti Sharma jumped up three spots to reclaim her career-best third rank in the latest women’s T20I bowlers rankings. The 25-year-old also reached the same rank in the all-rounders ranking list.

The Indian all-rounder is just behind England spinners Sophie Ecclestone and Sarah Glenn in the latest ICC rankings. She overtook West Indies star Hayley Matthews, South African pacer Shabnim Ismail and Australia’s Megan Schutt after some stellar performances recently.

Sharma has been in fine form recently and gained a few spots in the latest ICC rankings after producing some fine performances in the ongoing Asia Cup in Bangladesh. She picked up three wickets against Pakistan and two each against Bangladesh and Thailand.

The 25-year-old also leapfrogged Australia’s Ashleigh Gardner in the all-rounders rankings but still sits behind West Indian Hayley Matthews and New Zealand’s Sophie Devine.

Meanwhile, India batter Jemimah Rodrigues also moved up in the latest ICC rankings, while vice-captain Smriti Mandhana held on to her second-place spot. Rodrigues broke into the top-10 rankings for women’s batters, going past Shafali Verma and New Zealand’s Suzie Bates into sixth place. The Indian batter has been in great form recently, scoring 76 against Sri Lanka earlier this month before smashing 75 against the UAE and 35 against Bangladesh in the ongoing Asia Cup.

Deepti Sharma was surrounded by controversy last month when she ran out Charlotte Dean of England. In the 44th over, Deepti found Dean leaving the crease before she released the ball and thus ran out her to help India beat England by 16 runs and complete a 3-0 clean sweep over England for the first time in the latter’s backyard.

The 25-year-old said Dean was walking out of her crease repeatedly even after issuing her a warning.

“It was our plan because she was doing it repeatedly. We had also warned her. So, according to the guidelines of the rules we did it,” said Deepti Sharma.