Ishan Kishan becomes world’s number 1 batsman, leaves Abhishek behind, big upheaval in ICC rankings before T20 series

New Delhi. Just before the first T20 match against England, Ishan Kishan got such big news which will double his enthusiasm. Once again a big upheaval has been seen in Indian cricket. Young batsman Ishan Kishan, who is in strong form, has overtaken his teammate Abhishek Sharma to become the number 1 batsman in the T20 International rankings. Kishan has achieved this position on the basis of excellent performance and aggressive batting, due to which the batting of the Indian team looks even stronger.

Indian cricket team batsman Ishan Kishan has become the world’s number-1 batsman in T20 International, leaving behind his teammate Abhishek Sharma. The left-handed batsman made a comeback to the T20I team after a long time earlier this year, when he led Jharkhand to its first Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title in the 2025/26 season. Kishan’s rise to the top of the rankings is a result of his excellent performance in the 2026 T20 World Cup, while Abhishek Sharma’s performance was relatively lackluster.

Ishan Kishan becomes number-1 T20I batsman

In the India vs Ireland T20I series, Kishan scored only 1 and 12 runs, yet he overtook Abhishek to reach the top of the rankings. On the other hand, Abhishek Sharma scored 49 and 0 runs in two matches. Kishan scored 317 runs at a strike rate of almost 200 in the T20 World Cup 2026, which also included a match-winning inning against Pakistan in Colombo. Currently, Kishan has 876 rating points, while Abhishek has 869 points. Other Indian batsmen in the top-10 are Tilak Verma (5th) and Suryakumar Yadav (8th).

Great form in 2026

In the year 2026, Kishan has played 15 T20I matches, in which he has scored 545 runs. His highest score has been 103, average is 36.33 and strike rate is 199.63. During this period he has also scored 4 half-centuries and 1 century. After his brilliant performance in IPL 2026, he retained his place in the team for the series against Ireland and England and is proving to be reliable in the role of number-3 batsman. Whereas Abhishek Sharma’s performance in the T20 World Cup was disappointing. He played only two good innings—one in the Super-8 match against Zimbabwe and the other in the final. Despite performing well in the IPL, he could not perform well in the series against Ireland.

Changes in bowler and all-rounder rankings

Meanwhile, Varun Chakravarthy, who was ruled out of the Ireland series, has slipped one place to third in the T20I rankings for bowlers. Jasprit Bumrah has also fallen one place to sixth position, because he was rested in this series. Hardik Pandya remains at the second position in the all-rounder rankings, while Shivam Dubey has jumped three places to seventh position after taking 3 wickets and scoring 45 runs in the Ireland series.