Dhaka: The Bangladesh Women’s cricket team has made remarkable progress in the International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings, following their successful qualification for the ODI World Cup scheduled to take place later this year in India.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the latest ODI rankings reveal that three bowlers from the Bangladesh women’s team-Nahida Akhtar, Rabeya Khan, and Marufa Akhtar-have achieved career-high rating points. In addition, batters such as Sharmin Akhtar, Ritu Moni, and Marufa Akhtar have also reached personal bests in their ratings.
Left-arm spinner Nahida Akhtar shone in Bangladesh’s third match against Scotland, taking four wickets and climbing two places to secure the 10th position in the rankings. Her current rating points stand at 618, surpassing her previous best of 616 recorded last week. Despite this achievement, her highest ranking position remains seventh, which she attained in 2014.
Leg-spinner Rabeya Khan, who also took six wickets during the tournament, has
advanced one place to rank 22nd, with a personal best of 512 points in both rating and ranking position. Another leg-spinner, Fahima, has progressed two places to the 46th position.
Pacer Marufa Akhtar has made significant strides by moving up 11 places to reach a career-high 49th position, with 392 rating points, the highest she has achieved so far. In batting, she has also ascended six places to rank 85th, with her rating points at a career-high 317.
In the batting domain, Sharmin Akhtar Supta has climbed eight places to a career-high 21st position. She scored the second-highest 266 runs in the qualifiers, achieving a rating point of 555. Her career-high was 559 points, recorded after the match against the West Indies. Among Bangladesh’s batters, only captain Nigar Sultana Joty ranks above her, although Joty has dropped two places to 19th. Meanwhile, Ritu Moni has moved up 15 places to the 73rd position, with her highest rating points at 339, despite not reaching a career-high rank.
In international rank
ings, West Indian batsman Hayley Matthews, who challenged Bangladesh with a rapid 70 off 29 balls against Thailand, has advanced two places to fifth. South Africa’s Laura tops the ODI batting rankings, while England’s Sophie Ecclestone leads in bowling, and Australia’s Ash Gardner is the number one all-rounder.
Bangladesh’s qualification journey was tense, as they awaited the outcome after losing to Pakistan in the final match of the World Cup qualifiers in Lahore. In their last game, the West Indies achieved an impressive run chase, reaching the target of 167 runs set by Thailand in just 10.5 overs. Despite this effort, they remained behind Bangladesh by a narrow margin of 0.013 in net run rate.