Saif Hassan’s bat is smiling — and so is Saif himself! The combination of both has made an impact on the ICC rankings. Just a month and a half ago, he wasn’t even in the national team. Now, he has become Bangladesh’s top-ranked batter. The latest ICC update brought him this good news.
He returned to the squad during the Netherlands series before the Asia Cup and has been consistently scoring runs since then. In his Asia Cup debut, he made 30 runs against Afghanistan, followed by fifties against Sri Lanka and India. In the final match of the Afghanistan series, he struck yet another impressive fifty.
After such performances, a rise in the rankings was inevitable. For the first time in his career, Saif has broken into the top 20 of the ICC T20I batting rankings — now sitting at No. 18. He’s currently Bangladesh’s best-ranked batter, with no other Bangladeshi player inside the top 20.
There’s good news for Tanzid Hasan Tamim and Parvez Hossain Emon as well. Tamim has climbed six spots to No. 37, while Emon has jumped 18 places to No. 53.
Among Bangladeshi bowlers, Mustafizur Rahman remains the highest-ranked, currently at No. 12. The biggest leap, however, came from Nasum Ahmed, who soared 87 spots to reach No. 44. Tanzim Hasan Sakib has moved up nine places to No. 33, and Shoriful Islam has climbed 21 spots to be jointly at No. 49.
From the Afghanistan camp, Rashid Khan also received good news after the Bangladesh-Afghanistan series. With six wickets in three matches, he has moved up six places to No. 2 in the bowlers’ rankings — his best position in the last 16 months.
