Australia eyeing No. 1 T20I position: The imminent T20I series will bring additional benefits apart from a series win for Australia.
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The second and final leg of Australia’s tour of UAE (United Arab Emrates) will begin tomorrow with the first of the three T20Is being played at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
After their brave resistance in the first Test, Australia succumbed to the conditions in the second one, losing it by a mammoth margin of 373 runs. Having lost the Test series 0-1, Australia have a chance to draw level the tour by clinching the T20I series.
Having said that, winning the series will bring an additional benefit for Australia as they stand a chance to attain the No. 1 rank in the MRF Tyres ICC T20I rankings for the first time ever.
However, Australia’s road to glory won’t be that simple for they will have to whitewash the home team in a bid to attain the No. 1 rank.
With 132 point to their name, Pakistan are currently the No. 1 team. They are followed by their arch-rivals India (124) and then Australia (123). If Australia beat Pakistan 3-0, they will end the series with 130 points at No. 1 with Pakistan at No. 2 (127 points).
If Australia win the series 2-1, they will surpass India to come at No. 2 (126 points) with Pakistan still at the top (130 points).
If Australia manages to reach the top, they will become the eighth team (after England, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Windies and Pakistan) to achieve No. 1 position in T20Is.
Among the Top 10 Batsmen who will be taking part in this series are Aaron Finch (No. 1), Fakhar Zaman (No. 2), Babar Azam (No. 5), Glenn Maxwell (No. 6) and D’Arcy Short (No. 9).
Among the Top 10 Bowlers who will be taking part in this series are Shadab Khan (No. 2) and Andrew Tye (No. 6).
Read some of the recent Twitter reactions on this series below:
