Sahibzada Farhan Rises to No. 2 in ICC Men's T20I Batting Rankings

By TaazaPulse News Desk · Published: 29 October 2026 · TaazaPulse News Desk

Pakistan captain Sahibzada Farhan has climbed one place to No. 2 in the latest ICC Men's T20I batting rankings, released on Wednesday, 28 October 2026. Farhan now sits on 883 rating points, second only to India's Abhishek Sharma at the top of the world batting list in the shortest format.

The one-place rise carries real weight at the very top of a global ranking, where gaps are narrow. Farhan has moved ahead of the player previously above him, and trails the leader by only 14 points, keeping the race for No. 1 open.

Farhan's rise followed Pakistan's 2-1 T20I series victory over Sri Lanka. A series win is a team achievement, but this update shows how individual performances within a successful series can shape the global standings. For a captain, a series victory combined with a personal climb is a strong combination.

The rankings measure batting performance in Twenty20 internationals in rating points, reflecting how batters compare at the time of each update. In that context, 883 points is a substantial total, placing Farhan ahead of a long list of established international batters.

How the top three changed

India's Abhishek Sharma has reclaimed No. 1 in the ICC Men's T20I batting rankings with 897 points. He returned to the top position after a century in the third T20I against New Zealand. A century in a T20I is a major individual performance in a format where innings are short and scoring opportunities are limited, and a performance of that scale was enough to carry Sharma back to the summit.

Behind Farhan, India's Ishan Kishan slipped two places to No. 3 with 866 points. Kishan's fall of two places is the largest movement among the top three, and it reshaped the order beneath the leader. He trails Farhan by 17 points and Sharma by 31, so the top three is tight: 897, 883 and 866 points.

The new top three consists of two India batters and one Pakistan batter: Sharma leads, Farhan is second, and Kishan is third. Each is within a small points range of the others, so future updates could plausibly change the order again.

Beyond the top three, the rest of the top five is completed by two England batters. Harry Brook is fourth with 793 points, and Jos Buttler is fifth with 789 points. The gap between third and fourth is notable: Kishan has 866 points, Brook 793, a difference of 73 points that separates the top three from the rest of the top five. Brook and Buttler are separated by only four points.

The full top five is therefore: Sharma (India) 897, Farhan (Pakistan) 883, Kishan (India) 866, Brook (England) 793, and Buttler (England) 789. That is the headline order from the 28 October 2026 update, against which future updates will be measured.

The Pakistan picture among the batters

While Farhan's rise is the headline for Pakistan, the update also sets out where the country's other batters sit. The picture beyond Farhan is mixed, with some players slipping slightly and one moving up.

Saim Ayub is the next-highest Pakistan batter in the list, in 43rd place with 550 points, down one place in the latest update. Just behind him is Maaz Sadaqat, who sits in 46th place with 533 points, down two places. Sadaqat is 17 points behind Ayub, which means the two Pakistan batters are grouped closely together in the middle section of the rankings.

Babar Azam, one of Pakistan's most established batters, is in 48th place in the latest update, down one place. His position places him just behind Sadaqat, and the clustering of Ayub in 43rd, Sadaqat in 46th and Babar in 48th shows three Pakistan batters within a narrow band of the rankings, each separated from the next by only a few places.

Further down, Hasan Nawaz is in 51st place and Salman Ali Agha in 55th, both in the upper-middle section of the list. Fakhar Zaman completes the Pakistan batting picture named in this update, in 79th place, up two places, a rise that runs against the direction of travel for several of his team-mates.

The contrast between Farhan's position and the positions of Pakistan's other batters is striking. Farhan, in second place with 883 points, sits far ahead of the next Pakistan batter, Ayub, in 43rd with 550 points. That difference of 333 points, and 41 places, underlines how far clear Farhan currently is of his team-mates in the batting rankings, and the scale of his achievement in reaching the top three while several Pakistan batters are grouped in the 40s, 50s and beyond.

There is also colour around Farhan's recent profile in T20I cricket. Farhan celebrated a century in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 Super Eight match against Sri Lanka at Pallekele on 28 February 2026, a moment captured in a photograph credited to the ICC. That century, in a World Cup Super Eight match against the same opponent Pakistan later beat 2-1 in the T20I series that preceded this rankings update, is part of the backdrop to his standing in the format.

Bowlers and all-rounders: Pakistan's wider rankings picture

The batting rankings are only one part of the latest ICC Men's T20I update. The bowling and all-rounders lists were also updated, and Pakistan features prominently in both, with a spinner in joint-third place among the bowlers and an all-rounder holding second place in his category.

Among the bowlers, Pakistan spinner Abrar Ahmed is joint-third on 695 points, level with England's Adil Rashid, on exactly the same total, so neither can be separated. Ahead of them, Afghanistan's Rashid Khan holds No. 1 and Australia's Adam Zampa is No. 2. For Pakistan, a bowler joint-third is a notable counterpart to Farhan's second among the batters.

Pakistan's other bowlers are spread through the bowling rankings. Salman Mirza is 14th with 635 points, and Mohammad Nawaz is 16th with 626 points, placing both inside the top 20 and relatively close to each other, separated by only two places and nine points. Further down, Shaheen Afridi is 39th with 572 points, up one place, Sufiyan Muqeem is unchanged on 532 points, Usman Tariq is 66th with 498 points, and Shadab Khan is 72nd with 486 points, up two places. Read as a whole, Pakistan's bowling picture runs from Abrar in joint-third, through the top 20, and on to the bowlers positioned further down the list.

The all-rounders rankings complete the Pakistan picture in this update. Saim Ayub stayed second among the T20I all-rounders, holding his position while other players moved around him. At the top of that list, Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza holds No. 1, so Ayub sits directly behind him, in the same way that Farhan, in second among the batters, sits directly behind the leader in his category. Pakistan therefore has two players in second place across the ranking categories in this update: Farhan among the batters and Ayub among the all-rounders.

The combination of Farhan at No. 2 among the batters, Abrar Ahmed in joint-third among the bowlers, and Saim Ayub at No. 2 among the all-rounders means Pakistan is represented in the top three of all three T20I ranking categories in this update. That breadth of representation is part of the wider story of the 28 October 2026 update, beyond any single player's movement, and it shows a side with leading performers in batting, bowling and all-round terms.

What it means and what comes next

For Farhan, the immediate meaning of the latest update is clear. He is now the No. 2 T20I batter in the world, with 883 points, behind only Abhishek Sharma on 897 points and ahead of Ishan Kishan on 866 points. That position is a marker of his current standing in the format, and it places him in a direct contest for the top spot, with only 14 points separating him from No. 1.

For Pakistan, the update carries a wider meaning. A captain at No. 2 in the batting rankings, a spinner in joint-third in the bowling rankings, and an all-rounder holding second place in his category together give the side a visible presence at the top of the world game in this format. Those positions do not, by themselves, decide matches, since rankings measure individual standing rather than team strength, but they do reflect the performances that produced them, including the 2-1 T20I series victory over Sri Lanka that preceded Farhan's rise.

The story does not stand still. Rankings move again with the next T20I series, and each new set of matches can change positions and points. A player who performs well can climb, and one who does not can slip. With 14 points between first and second and 17 between second and third, the order at the top is close enough that future performances could plausibly alter it.

For now, the headline of the 28 October 2026 update stands on its own. Sahibzada Farhan, Pakistan's T20I captain, has climbed one place to No. 2 in the ICC Men's T20I batting rankings with 883 points, following Pakistan's 2-1 T20I series victory over Sri Lanka. Abhishek Sharma leads the list with 897 points after his century in the third T20I against New Zealand, Ishan Kishan is third with 866 points after slipping two places, and Harry Brook and Jos Buttler complete the top five. Alongside Farhan's rise, Abrar Ahmed sits joint-third among the bowlers and Saim Ayub stays second among the all-rounders, giving Pakistan leading representatives across the T20I rankings.