Sanju Samson takes a big leap in T20I rankings after World Cup blitz; Why is Abhishek Sharma's top spot in danger?

India wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson jumped 25 places in the ICC T20I rankings for batters following his epic 50-ball knock of 97 in the T20 World Cup Super 8 match against West Indies.

The Kerala batter, who was in 65th place before the match, has now climbed to 40th place.

Some of the established batters ahead of Samson include West Indies' Rovman Powell (Joint 38th), South Africa's Reeza Hendricks (Joint 38th), and the Pakistan duo of Saim Ayub (Joint 37th) and Babar Azam (38th). New Zealand's Glenn Phillips shares the 37th spot with Saim Ayub.

However, while Sanju Samson will relish his rise in the ICC T20I rankings, the same cannot be said of Abhishek Sharma. Abhishek is currently No.1 on the ICC T20I rankings for batters, but he may not last for long.

He registered three consecutive ducks before scoring just 15 runs in the Super 8 match against South Africa. Against the West Indies, Abhishek managed to score just 10 runs.

His only notable knock in the T20 World Cup so far has come against Zimbabwe in the Super 8 stage, when he slammed 55 runs from 30 balls to take India to 256/4. Overall, in the ongoing T20 World Cup, the southpaw has scored just 80 runs from six matches.

Another reason Abhishek's top spot is under threat is the rise of Pakistan opener Sahibzada Farhan. The Punjab batter currently leads the rankings with 874 rating points, only 26 points ahead of Farhan, who has jumped one place to second with 848 rating points.

Farhan enjoyed an impressive campaign with the bat and was arguably Pakistan's standout performer, who were knocked out in the Super 8 stage.

He finished his campaign with 383 runs from six innings at a strike-rate of 160.25, including two fifties and as many centuries. He also broke Virat Kohli's record for the most runs scored in a single edition of the T20 World Cup.

Because of his poor form, it remains to be seen whether Abhishek Sharma will even play in the semi-final against England on Thursday. Should he retain his place in the playing XI, it could very well be a make-or-break situation for him, as one more failure with the bat could see him falling out of favour.