India Women’s Cricket Team Now On 3rd Spot In T20I Rankings

In a year where there has hardly been any international cricket, with the game returning to normalcy amid the pandemic fears and lockdown all thanks to the West Indies and England Tests, there’s massive news for the women’s game. Not only since the recently held Windies women tour to England culminated in an exciting string of results for the mighty English hosts (5-nil drubbing of Stafanie Taylor’s team), but also because there’s bright news for the Indian women’s cricket team under Harmanpreet Kaur.

As it turns out, the Indian women’s cricket team is now on the 3rd spot in the current ICC rankings in the shortest format of the game. To be among the top teams in any format is, in itself, a high for a cricketing outfit. Then, to be among the top three in arguably the most surprising and unpredictable format of the sport should definitely provide a great sense of gladness and happiness to the fiery Indian women’s cricket team.

It wasn’t too long ago, in the Pre-Pandemic 2020 that Harmanpreet‘s ladies walked on to the finals of the mother of all sporting battles in the women’s game: the ICC T20 Women’s world cup.

Reaching the finals in the game’s most enthralling format is a mighty fine feat in itself- right? Perhaps even more so when one takes on the challenge of facing Australia, on their home turf, a team that India beat in the opening round of the very tournament on February 21, 2020.

Although, what would follow in the hugely-followed finals wasn’t anything that pleased the Indian team or its millions of fans around the world as the hosts crushed the young and daring side without much ado, Australia scoring 184 whilst restricting India, in their run-chase to a paltry 99.

But where a terrible sense of underachievement ensued upon the completion of the ICC Women’s T20 world cup 2020 finals, there’s now a big reason to celebrate for the vanquished, half a year down the line.

Whosoever said the changing vagaries of sport are as unpredictable as the difficulty in predicting what might tomorrow bring wasn’t really off the mark- or was he?

But where it stands at the moment then the Indian Women’s cricket team is stationed on third in the ICC WT20I rankings, next only to Australia and England, with 270 points.

That said, how does their equation pan out vis-a-vis the team next in line?

According to a report published in the revered Hindustan Times, the trending story was touched upon by the following:

The biggest improvement in rankings has been registered by Brazil, who are up 11 places to 27, after a gain of 15 rating points, while the biggest ranking fall has been for Malaysia, who are down from 31st to 38th.

Samoa (up two places to 16th), Indonesia (up two places to 20th) and the United States of America (up four places to 31st) are among other teams to have made notable progress.

Three teams have lost their place on the rankings table. Denmark and Belgium have not played any matches since October 2017 while Qatar have played fewer than the required six during the period.

One certainly hopes for the 2020 Women’s T20 challenge to go on as scheduled. This would enable fans to see several noted Indian talents return to the field, alongside key international stars in a format that unfurled some memorable games in 2019.