Abhishek Sharma rose to an ICC rating of 907 after his stunning run of form in the Asia Cup. But where does he rank on the all-time list?
10. Mohammad Rizwan
882 v England, 2022
Pakistan wicketkeeper Rizwan has played over 100 T20Is, but is currently out of the T20 side. A career strike rate of 125 is on the lower side for this era, but he certainly had his high points. Between December 2021 and April 2023, he maintained a rating of above 800, generally considered a benchmark for elite performance by the ICC's system. His peak of 882 came in September 2022, on the back of consecutive half-centuries against England (88 at Karachi and 63 at Lahore).
9. Travis Head
885 v Scotland, 2024
A contender for the title of best all-format batter in the world, Head's naturally aggressive style has lent itself well to opening the innings in the shortest format of the game. He has only played 41 matches so far, and his recent form has been patchy. But last year he built on an incredible IPL campaign to score 76 against India and 80 against Scotland in back-to-back innings, lifting his rating to 885. He has since dropped to 771.
8. Kevin Pietersen
886 v Australia, 2010
A rebel in virtually every sense, Pietersen was one of the first English players to really embrace the IPL as well as one of the first exponents of the 'switch-hit' at the top level of the game. KP's rating soared to 834 after just 22 matches, and peaked at 886 after the 2010 T20 World Cup final which England won: 73*(52) vs Pakistan, 53 (33) vs South Africa, 42* (26) vs Sri Lanka and 47 (31) against Australia.
7. David Warner
894 v West Indies, 2010
One of international cricket's great modern-day pantomime villains. Everyone loved to hate Warner, and that was partly possible only because of how good he was. Warner made Australia's T20I team before his first-class debut, very much a rarity in 2010. He peaked very early on, just 18 matches in when his record read 600 runs at an average of 33.33 and strike rate of 155.
6. Babar Azam
900 v England, 2019
The other half of the 'RizBar' opening duo for Pakistan, Babar has also lost his place in the current team under Mike Hesson. Mohammad Yousuf (Tests), Zaheer Abbas and Javed Miandad (both ODIs) are the only other men from Pakistan to achieve a 900+ batting rating in any format. Not always the quickest scorer, Babar's 2019 peak came after a knock of 65 off 42 against England at Cardiff even as Pakistan went on to lose.
5. Aaron Finch
904 v Zimbabwe, 2018
The winning captain of the 2021 T20 World Cup, Finch may not have enjoyed much success on the franchise circuit, but was a gun for Australia in T20Is. Till date, he is the only player to record two 150-plus scores in men's T20Is – no mean feat in the era of ridiculous records being set among Associate nations. His 172 against Zimbabwe in 2018, unsurprisingly, boosted him from 850 to 904 rating points; this is still the highest individual score in men's T20I cricket.
4. Abhishek Sharma
907 v Pakistan, 2025
The face of India's new-look T20 outfit, Abhishek's rapid scoring at the top of the order has come with otherworldly consistency. The ongoing Asia Cup has pushed him to new heights; 30 (16) vs UAE, 31 (13) vs Pakistan, 38 (15) vs Oman and 74 (39) vs Pakistan have taken him from 829 to 907 points – and he may still rise. Only two other Indian men have crossed 900 points in the T20I format.
3. Virat Kohli
909 v England, 2014
One of those two Indians above Abhishek is Kohli. He retired from this international format last year, after lifting the T20 World Cup trophy for the first time. But his batting peak had come nearly 10 years earlier, in September 2014 during an incredible T20 World Cup campaign in Bangladesh. India made the final on the back of his 319 runs in six matches – he remained not out on three occasions to boost his average to 106. No other batter made even 250 runs in the tournament.
2. Suryakumar Yadav
912 v New Zealand, 2023
Perhaps the best T20I batter India has ever produced, and definitely so, according to the ICC rankings, "SKY" made waves by hitting his first ball in T20I cricket for six, and has not looked back since. An unbeaten 112 against Sri Lanka in January 2023 (his third T20I century) pushed him past 900 for the first time, to 910, and the following knock of 47 against New Zealand ticked that up to 912, the second-highest rating ever.
1. Dawid Malan
919 v South Africa, 2020
It's a somewhat surprising name at No.1. Malan was never known for being particularly quick-scoring, but he was uber-consistent. For 22 matches between September 2020 and November 2021, he maintained a rating above 800, with the peak coming against South Africa on the back of a run of 66 (43), 42 (32), 21 (18), 19 (20), 55 (40) and 99* (47). Malan only remained above 900 rating points for three games; it is extremely difficult to maintain that standard.
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