Gardner new No.1 in women’s T20I all-rounders’ ranking

Australian all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner has overtaken West Indies skipper Hayley Matthews, India’s Deepti Sharma and New Zealand captain Sophie Devine to attain a career-best No.1 spot in the latest ICC Women’s T20I player rankings for all-rounders released on Tuesday. Following a closely-fought five-match T20I series, which Australia won 4-1, Gardner, who was named Player of the Match in the last game for her 32-ball unbeaten 66 and bowling figures of 2/20, has topped the all-rounders’ list for the first time after moving up three spots. Gardner (417 points) holds a big advantage over Devine (389) and Deepti (387) in second and third spots respectively, with Matthews dropping two places (381) to fourth. The 25-year-old Australian is also up two places to a career-best seventh position among batters and progressed three places to a career-best 14th among bowlers in the latest weekly update. Deepti Sharma, who is third on the all-rounders’ list with 387 points, is also maintaining a similar position in the T20I bowlers’ ranking, while her 34-ball 53 in the fifth and final T20I sees her move up three places to 29th in the batting rankings. Among batters, India’s Smriti Mandhana is third with 727 points with Australia’s Tahlia McGrath leading the charts with 814 points, followed by country-mate Beth Mooney (760 points). India’s Jemimah Rodrigues has slipped two places (607) to 12th in the ranking for batters.