Australia’s Annabel Sutherland has claimed the top spot in the ICC Women’s T20I bowling rankings for the first time in her career, despite not having played a T20I since March.
Sutherland retained her rating of 736, which proved enough to surpass her rivals after a dip in form from several key contenders, including Pakistan’s Sadia Iqbal. The left-arm spinner dropped one place to joint-second alongside India’s Deepti Sharma, after taking just three wickets in Pakistan’s 2-1 series defeat to Ireland in Dublin earlier this month.
Ireland’s Orla Prendergast was the standout performer of that series, delivering a Player-of-the-Series performance that included 144 runs at a strike rate of 135.84 and four wickets. Her contributions propelled her eight spots up the rankings to a career-best 19th among T20I batters and sixth among allrounders.
Fellow Irish players Laura Delany and Rebecca Stokell also made gains, climbing to joint 50th and 77th respectively in the batting rankings.
From the Pakistan camp, despite the series loss, Muneeba Ali rose to 32nd among batters and pacer Fatima Sana climbed to 59th in the bowling standings.
Sutherland’s rise to No. 1 underscores her consistency over the past year and highlights the volatility of rankings when rivals falter — even in the absence of recent match action.