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Brandon Moyo
SIKANDAR Raza has moved one place up, on the latest ICC Men’s T20 all-rounder rankings, and is now the FOURTH best all-rounder in cricket in the world.
The 38-year-old Chevrons stalwart has been consistent with bat and ball for Zimbabwe.
He rose above Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan and Afghanistan star Mohammed Nabi into fourth place on the latest rankings.
Raza is only behind India’s T20 World Cup hero, Hardik Pandya, Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga and Australia’s Marcus Stoinis.
Raza has a rating of 210 points while Pandya and Hasaranga are tied on 222 at the top of the pack.
Raza is the highest-ranked Zimbabwean and also the only one in the top 20.
The closest Chevrons player is Sean Williams in 31st place with a rating of 103 and Ryan Burl in 39th place with a rating of 89.
The trio are the only Zimbabwean all-rounders’ in the top 40.
Raza will be back in action tomorrow when he leads Zimbabwe in their opening encounter of the five-match T20I series against India at Harare Sports Club.
Pandya rose two places to go level with Hasaranga as the top-ranked men’s T20I all-rounder.
He made a big contribution in the final of the T20 World Cup with the crucial wickets of Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller.
He had a good tournament with bat and ball and became the first Indian to reach No.1 in the category.
Pandya made impactful cameos down the order with the bat and made breakthroughs with the ball when the team needed him to.
He finished with 144 runs at a batting strike-rate of over 150 and also took 11 wickets.
Raza will be captaining a young Zimbabwe squad for the upcoming series against the newly-crowned T20 World Cup 2024 champions India.
The average age of this squad is 27 — and that includes the 38-year-old skipper.
He has been retained by Dubai Capitals for the third season of the International League T20 (ILT20) which is meant to run from January 11 to February 9 2025.
“I am extremely humble and delighted to announce that I have been retained by Dubai Capitals for the upcoming season of ILT20.
“I cannot wait to be in Dubai and join my Capitals family whom I have been with for the past two years. This is going to be season three for me and I am very excited and humbled and delighted to be joining my Dubai Capitals family for the upcoming season. See you all soon,” said Raza.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter