Young Ireland cricketer Harry Tector has jumped to the seventh spot in the latest ICC men’s ODI batting rankings after he registered his highest score in the 50-over format - 140 in the second match against Bangladesh in Chelmsford. The Irish batter ended the series with 206 runs - the leading run-getter in the three-match series. The 23-year-old managed to displace Indian batting maestro Virat Kohli and South Africa’s Quinton de Kock, who have dropped one place each to eighth and ninth respectively.
Meanwhile, young India batting sensation Shubman Gill continues to hold the No. 5 position in the rankings with 738 points. While Pakistan skipper Babar Azam is sitting at the top of the table with an 886 rating.
Tector’s seventh place on the rankings, following a jump of 72 rating points, is the best by an Ireland batter.
The right-handed batter’s new rating of 722 points is also the highest an Ireland male batter has ever achieved in ODI cricket.
Besides, Kohli and de Kock, Tector is also ahead of some other prominent names in international cricket - India’s captain Rohit Sharma (10th), Australia’s Steve Smith (11th) and Jos Buttler (15th).
Former England skipper Eoin Morgan reached 712 points in 2019 but by that time he was playing for England. Among Irish players, the highest was Paul Stirling, who reached 697 points in June 2021.
Tector, who is in red-hot form, will get an opportunity to further improve his ranking when Ireland take part in the World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe in June-July.
“He’s (Tector) just got all the attributes to go on and be one of the greats of Irish cricket and I hope that we can help him on his way, and he continues to put in scores for us," Ireland skipper Andy Balbirnie was quoted as saying by ICC.
“The more runs he gets for us, the better place we’re going to be."
Tector wasn’t the only Ireland player to impress against Bangladesh, with underrated seamer Mark Adair also making giant strides on the latest rankings for bowlers and all-rounders on the back of his seven wickets for the series.
Adair collected two more scalps than any other bowler over the course of the series and was rewarded with a 30-spot hump to 31st overall on the list for ODI bowlers and a 33-place rise on the list for all-rounders to 33rd.