March 26,2025: New Zealand’s rising star, Jacob Duffy, has made a remarkable ascent in the ICC Men’s T20I Bowling Rankings following his impressive performances in the home series against Pakistan. Duffy’s dominance in the series has led to him leapfrogging seven places to reach the fifth spot with 694 rating points, a career-best achievement.
Before the final match of the series, New Zealand secured an unassailable 3-1 lead over Pakistan in the five-match T20I series. Duffy’s incredible rise follows a previous week’s surge where he jumped 23 spots after taking a total of six wickets in the opening two matches. He continued his fine form, adding five more wickets in the following two games.
Alongside Duffy’s surge, Pakistan’s Haris Rauf also made notable progress, jumping 11 places to 15th in the T20I Bowling Rankings after taking impressive figures of 3/27 and 3/29 in the previous games. Another Pakistan player, Abbas Afridi, moved up eight spots to 36th.
In the T20I Batting Rankings, Australia’s Travis Head remains in the top spot, followed by India’s Abhishek Sharma and England’s Phil Salt. New Zealand’s Mark Chapman was the biggest mover in the batting rankings, jumping 10 places to 41st after his explosive knock of 94 runs off 44 balls in the series.
New Zealand’s captain, Michael Bracewell, also had a notable rise in the All-Rounder rankings, climbing 12 spots to 14th after scoring valuable contributions in the series with 46* from 26 balls and 31 from 18.
The recent rankings update also saw some changes following the Namibia-Canada series in Windhoek. Namibia’s Gerhard Erasmus held his place in the top ten of the All-Rounder rankings, while teammate Niko Davin made a remarkable leap of 27 spots to 68th, thanks to his match-winning 50* in the final game.
Duffy’s rise and the progress of his New Zealand teammates reflect the team’s growing strength in T20I cricket and the individual brilliance of their players.