Meet female Pakistani cricketer who dethroned Sophie Ecclestone in T20I bowler rankings

Pakistan's Sadia Iqbal on Tuesday reclaimed her spot at the top of the ICC Women's T20I Bowler Rankings. She dethroned England spinner Sophie Ecclestone, as per the official website of the ICC (International Cricket Council). Sadia Iqbal was one of the leading performers in the 2024 ICC Women's T20 World Cup and jumped one point in the Points Table for T20 bowlers.

For the unversed, Ecclestone was recently not a part of England's playing squad against the West Indies, which caused a reshuffle in the T20 bowler rankings. Not only this, Ecclestone dropped to fourth on the latest T20 rankings chart, but a piece of good news arrived for one of her teammates as Lauren Bell improved 13 spots to jump to 6th position on her recent performance against West Indies.

The big winner on the rankings for T20l batters is Hayley Matthews, with the West Indies captain making some inroads on Australia's dominance at the top of the rankings following her Player of the Series efforts against England.

Matthews scored 177 runs at an average of 88.50 across the three games in England and rose two spots to second overall on the latest rankings to put pressure on long-time No. 1 ranked batter Beth Mooney. Mooney now holds a relatively small advantage over Matthews at the top of the batting rankings, with Australia's Tahlia McGrath dropping to third overall due to the gains made by the West Indies star.

A trio of England batters also make eye-catching improvements up the batting chart, with Nat Sciver-Brunt, Heather Knight, and Sophia Dunkley all rising in the rankings following some decent performances with the bat against the West Indies.

Sciver-Brunt rises five places to ninth, Knight jumps seven rungs to equal 17th, while Dunkley improves eight spots to go to equal 29th after 108 runs from three knocks against the West Indies. Matthews increases her lead at the top of the rankings for T20l all-rounders, with the West Indies skipper also claiming three wickets for the series against England to go alongside her lofty haul of runs.

ICC Women's T20I Bowler Rankings

Sadia Iqbal (Pakistan) - 1st
Deepti Sharma (India) - 2nd
Annabel Sutherland (Australia) - 3rd
Sophie Ecclestone (England) - 4th
Renuka Singh Thakur (India) - 5th
Lauren Bell (England) - 6th
Charlie Dean (England) - 7th
Nashra Sandhu (Pakistan) - 8th
Georgia Wareham (Australia) - 9th
Sarah Glenn (England) - 10th