Sanju Samson has found a new lease of life in T20Is while opening the innings. He became the first Indian and fourth overall last week on November 8 (Wednesday) to notch up back-to-back centuries in the shortest format much to the delight of his fans. Samson smashed 107 runs off just 50 balls with seven fours and 10 sixes to his name and despite bagging a duck in the next game, he has taken a big jump in the latest ICC T20I rankings.
Samson has jumped 27 places to end up at 39th place in the rankings following his stunning century in Durban. In the process, he has also gone past the T20I rankings of veterans Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli who retired from the format following India's T20 World Cup win in June this year.
For the unversed, Rohit is at 58th position in the rankings while Kohli is sitting at 64th place and are constantly going down having called it quits from the format. Samson has well and truly taken over the mantle from them showing immense form with the bat. He has finally found his favourable position to bat in the format and is making it his own with some scintillating batting.
Rankings of Samson, Rohit and Kohli in T20Is
| Player |
Rank |
Rating Points |
| Sanju Samson |
39 |
537 |
| Rohit Sharma |
58 |
475 |
| Virat Kohli |
64 |
456 |
Meanwhile, Samson has a chance to jump even further in the rankings with a brilliant performance in the last two T20Is. Among other Indian batters, Suryakumar Yadav, the skipper has slipped down to third position while the only other Indian in the top 10, Yashasvi Jaiswal is also at seventh place.
Interestingly, South Africa have none of their batters or bowlers in the top 10 in the T20I rankings with Anrich Nortje dropping out having missed the ongoing series against India.
