Zimbabwe Cricket stars Sean Williams and Sikandar Raza have made huge gains in the latest ICC T20I Player Rankings.
The pair were instrumental in Zimbabwe’s qualification for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.
Zimbabwe qualified for the global tournament after winning the all-important Qualifier B semi-final over Papua New Guinea before capping off a successful campaign with a win over the Netherlands in the final at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo on Sunday.
And two of the main heroes of Zimbabwe’s successful campaign have been rewarded for their sterling efforts by making big strides on the global cricket governing body’s T20 T20I Rankings for all-rounders.
Williams rose eight spots to be placed 12th overall for T20I all-rounders, while compatriot Sikandar Raza jumped five places to 19th after he was named Player of the Tournament during the Qualifier B event.
The 35-year-old Williams enjoyed a successful return to international cricket after almost seven months away as he finished third on the top run scorers of the qualification tournament.
Williams smashed 197 runs in five matches which included two consecutive half-centuries. Although he had a return of just three wickets with the ball, Williams conceded very few runs as he finished with a remarkably low economy rate of 4.41.
Raza was deservedly named the most outstanding player during the qualifiers after finishing second on the top run scorers with 228 runs from five matches at an impressive average of 57 and a tournament second highest strike rate of 176.
1/2 It has taken me a whole day to as to how I feel and I still think this feeling hasn’t sunk in yet.
1. Alhamdulillah and Thanks to Allah for all the blessings.
2. Well done to players and technical team for achieving what we set out to achieve when we got together for camp pic.twitter.com/PnlETf2FPy— Sikandar Raza (@SRazaB24) July 18, 2022
The 36-year-old batting allrounder also did well with ball in hand, taking five wickets during the qualifiers, with four coming in the final against Netherlands.
The ICC T20I rankings for all-rounders are topped by Mohammad Nabi from Afghanistan while Ryan Burl, who is ranked 17th is the other Zimbabwean inside the top 20.
Meanwhile rising Zimbabwe star Wessley Madhevere is the highest placed Zimbabwe on the T20I batting rankings on position 48 while Luke Jongwe is setting the pace for locals on the bowling rankings on position 45.