India climbs to 3rd spot in ICC T20 rankings

Riding on their huge win over England in the group stages of the ongoing ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, India jumped four places to claim the third position in the Reliance ICC T20 Championship table, which was released on Wednesday.

India spanked defending champions England by 90 runs in a Group A match, which propelled Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men to 116 rating points.

The crushing defeat meant England slipped a position to second spot with 124 ratings points.

South Africa head into the Super Eight stage as the number-one ranked team.

Team India's good showing in the World T20 first round means it is now third in ICC rankings. Pic/AFP

Meanwhile, Suresh Raina is the lone Indian to feature in the top 10 list for the T20I Player Rankings for batsmen.

Even though Raina dropped two places in the recently-released chart, the left-hander still occupied the fifth position with 730 points in his kitty.

Another Indian to rise in the chart is opener Gautam Gambhir who is 13th (up by three places).

New Zealand's wicket-keeper batsman Brendon McCullum retained his number-one batting spot with Chris Gayle in second place.

McCullum's knock of 123 against Bangladesh, the highest in the history of Twenty20 International cricket to date, also helped him achieve a career-best rating of 849.

Australia's Shane Watson jumped four places to a career-high third position. Watson, who won successive Player of the Match awards against Ireland and West Indies, also garnered his career-best rating of 758.

The batsmen from Asia have made the most impressive movements in the batting table ahead of the Super Eight stage, which starts in Pallekele from Thursday.