Just as India were celebrating their T20I series win over recent ODI World champions Australia, a personal milestone was unlocked for a young spin wizard in the squad from Rajasthan - 23-year-old Ravi Bishnoi. In the latest ICC rankings released on Tuesday, he rose to the top of the T20I ICC rankings for bowlers with the help of the 9 wickets he picked in the 5 match series.
Having made his T20 debut in February just last year, Bishnoi has played only 21 games but his deceptive googlies and well-disguised variations have made him stand out in the international cricketing arena. He boasts a total of 34 wickets in the shortest format of the game at 17.38, possessing an astounding economy rate of 7.14.
With 699 points to his credit, the leg-spinner dethroned Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan as the number 1 ranked T20I bowler in world cricket. Bishnoi also leapfrogged the likes of Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga, England's Adil Rashid and SL's Maheesh Theekshana to spring up to the first position.
Exploits Against Australia
Rishnoi's new career milestone comes after his series-winning performance against the Aussies where the young spinner took a total nine wickets in five games, maintaining an average of 18.22. His bowling figures in the five matches of the series read as - 3/32, 2/32, 2/29, 1/17 and 1/54.
“I am very happy with my bowling, touchwood, I'll keep performing this way in the future,” Bishnoi would tell the bowling coach after the fourth match.
With his fastish, flat deliveries and deadly googlies in between that perplexed the Australian batters, Bishnoi emerged as the best bowler that saw him bag the Player of the Series award.
His brilliant showing during the bilateral series earned him accolades from Sri Lanka’s legendary cricketer and one of the best spinners in the game Muttiah Muralitharan, who decoded how Bishnoi stands apart from the spinners India have had in the past.
"India have always had a good, uh, set of spin in every generation. You see from Anil (Kumble) to (Ravichandran) Ashwin to now the young guys who have come. Bishnoi is different from any other leg spinner. He bowls quicker and he makes the ball slide a lot and Axar also is very accurate, not a big spinner of the ball and Washi also is similar because he doesn't turn much and is very accurate and quite quicker," Muralitharan said on Jio Cinema.
2020 U19 World Cup Performance
While his meteoric rise in the ICC rankings didn’t come as a surprise, Bishnoi initially grabbed headlines in 2020 at the ICC Men's Under 19 Cricket World Cup when he finished the tournament as the leading wicket-taker with 17 scalps to his name as India finished runners up as Bangladesh lifted the coveted trophy.
In the process, Bishnoi also shattered a couple of records - He joined Piyush Chawla (2006) and Sandeep Sharma (2012) as the only other Indian bowler to take a four-fer in an U19 World Cup final. Additionally, the Rajasthan lad moved past Shalabh Srivastava (2000), Abhishek Sharma (2002), Kuldeep Yadav (2014) and Anukul Roy (2018) to become India's highest wicket-taker ever in a single World Cup edition.
What's Next?
With just 6 T20Is scheduled from now till the ICC Men’s World Cup 2024 in the Caribbean and the US, India will be aiming at finalizing their squad for the showpiece event. And when it comes to the bowling department, Bishnoi would be eyeing a spot.
Notably, Bishnoi has always performed brilliantly when given the chance and his economy rate of 7.14 is one of the best among the current lot of bowlers in India. However, his performance in the upcoming series against South Africa, IPL and subsequent T20I games will play a pivotal role in his dream of donning the blue jersey in the marquee event.
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