India's Shafali Verma retains no. 1 spot on T20I rankings; Smriti Mandhana at third

Indian Women's opening batter and teen sensational Shafali Verma retained her top spot in the ICC Women's T20 Internationals Player Rankings, released on Tuesday. As per the rankings, Verma remains the No.1 T20 batter with 759 points, followed by Australian Beth Mooney with 744 points and Indian opener Smriti Mandhana in third place with 716 points. Meanwhile, New Zealand all-rounder Sophie Devine became the joint No.1 in women’s all-rounder’s list as per the rankings released by ICC on Tuesday. Among other players in the ICC Player Rankings, Indian All-rounder Deepti Sharma jumped to fourth place in the all-rounder's rankings and sixth place in the bowler’s rankings. Meanwhile, Indian spinner Poonam Yadav also retained her eighth place in the bowling list. 

The 17-year-old Verma became the youngest cricketer to play in a Women’s T20I match for India by making her debut at the age of 15-years-old in the T20I match against South Africa back in 2019. She became the youngest half-centurion in India during the five-match series against West Indies and scored 158 runs in the series. She made her ODI debut against England on June 27 before debuting in the lone test match against England. In the Test match, she scored 159 runs in both the innings combined and was named player of the match. She also became the youngest cricketer to represent India in all three formats of international cricket.

Shafali Verma has scored 665 runs in the 25 T20I matches she has played for India till now. She is widely known for her hard-hitting abilities and has quickly risen to the ranks in International cricket. She has a strike rate of 145.19, making her one of the most sought-after women’s players in world cricket. She has also played for the Velocity in the Women’s T20 Challenge before making her International debut. She also played for the Birmingham Phoneix Women in the inaugural edition of the Hundred tournament. Her stunning knock of 76 runs against Welsh Fire in the tournament helped the team win the match by ten wickets and displayed the true potential of the cricketer.

(With inputs from ANI)

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