Abhishek Sharma rises to second as India take the top two spots in the T20I batting rankings

India hold the top two places on the ICC Men's T20I batting rankings after Abhishek Sharma climbed past Pakistan's Sahibzada Farhan on the back of his 82 in the Delhi series opener

Abhishek Sharma has risen one place to second on the latest ICC Men's T20I batting rankings, overtaking Sahibzada Farhan and leaving only his India team-mate Ishan Kishan ahead of him.

The two are separated by 51 rating points, an India one-two at the head of the list.

The ICC published the update on Wednesday, taking in the first two matches of India's T20I series against Afghanistan in Delhi, which the reigning T20 World Cup champions have already won by going 2-0 up.

India's bowlers made more ground still. Four of them climbed, and three now sit inside the top 14.

The same update took in England's home Test series against Pakistan and Australia's ODI opener against Zimbabwe in Harare.

Abhishek closes on Kishan

Abhishek set the series alight in the opener with a 32-ball 82, an innings that carried India past Afghanistan and lifted the left-hander clear of Farhan.

Only Kishan now stands above him. Abhishek added 39 in the second match, when India completed the series win.

Samson rewarded for a 22-ball fifty

Sanju Samson rose four places to 30th after his half-century in the second match, which he reached from 20 balls and finished at 57 from 22.

The wicketkeeper had gone into that game on scores of 5, 0, 1, 27 and 10, with his place under scrutiny despite more than 60 T20I caps and three hundreds.

He put the innings down to method rather than to any personal correction. "We are actually the world champions now and we have a format and an approach which has been very successful," Samson said. "We are just following it as we were following it last two-to-three years."

Samson was named player of the tournament at the T20 World Cup earlier this year after 321 runs in five innings at an average of 80.25 and a strike rate of 199.37.

Four India bowlers on the move

Varun Chakravarthy rose two places to fifth among T20I bowlers and Jasprit Bumrah climbed seven to 10th.

Arshdeep Singh made the largest move of the group, up 11 places to 14th, while Axar Patel gained six to reach 27th.

Afghanistan's gain came on the all-rounders' list, where Azmatullah Omarzai advanced after an unbeaten half-century in the series opener.

Robinson reaches a career high among Test bowlers

England's Ollie Robinson moved to third on the Test bowling rankings with a career-high rating, the reward for 21 wickets across the recent home series against Pakistan, which England won 3-0.

Josh Tongue reached a career-best mark of his own, rising to 11th after taking 19 wickets in the same three Tests.

Robinson's half-century in the third Test in Birmingham also took him up seven places to 13th among Test all-rounders.

Pakistan captain Babar Azam gained two places to 13th among Test batters and Shan Masood four to 37th, while England wicketkeeper Jamie Smith rose three to 20th.

Australian gains in Harare

Australia's win over Zimbabwe in the opening ODI in Harare lifted three of their players. Nathan Ellis improved 20 places to 20th among ODI bowlers after a five-wicket haul.

Matthew Renshaw, the player of the match for his 109, moved from outside the top 100 to 68th on the ODI batting list.

Cooper Connolly rose nine places to 77th after making 51 from No. 3 in the same innings.

India complete the Afghanistan series with the third and final T20I in Delhi.

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