International Cricket Council (ICC) has removed Shakib Al Hasan’s name from the ICC T20I rankings altogether which has come as a bit of a surprise for everyone.
When David Warner and Steve Smith had faced a 1-year ban, their name was still there in the ICC rankings.
Smith, for a matter of fact, never went out of top 10 in the test batsmen’s rankings and it didn’t take him a long time to get his top spot back as he made a comeback to test cricket.
Steve Smith is the no. 1 ranked batsman in the world in the longest format of the game at the moment with Virat Kohli, the India captain, at no. 2.
But, the thing with Smith and Warner’s ban was that it was imposed by Cricket Australia (CA) and not by ICC. ICC’s punishment for ball tampering doesn’t stretch up to 1 year.
ICC, however, is not tolerant about any form of corruption at all. Although Shakib was not found directly involved in corruption, the fact that he didn’t convey to the ICC that he was approached by people who were carrying out corrupt practices in the game was the reason why ICC banned him.
Before being banned, Shakib was no. 2 in the world in the all-rounder’s category in T20I cricket. He was in top 10 in the bowlers’ rankings as well, but now that the new rankings have come out, Shakib’s name is nowhere there to be seen.
In the new rankings, it’s the Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell who has acquired the no. 2 spot in the all-rounders’ rankings. The Afghan maestro Mohammad Nabi is leading the chart as the no. 1 T20I all-rounder in the world.
ICC will soon update the test and the ODI rankings as well and Shakib’s name is unlikely to be there in those rankings either.
