Alex Hales speaks exclusively to ecb.co.uk following England's win at Durham
England’s Alex Hales has become the number-one ranked Twenty20 international batsman on the back of his 61-ball 94 in England’s series-leveling 27-run win over Australia yesterday at the Emirates Durham ICG.
The 24-year-old opening batsman’s second-highest T20I score - he hit 99 versus West Indies last year - and his sixth format fifty in his 21 innings lifts him above New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum.
Australia’s Aaron Finch, whose 156 from 63 deliveries in a 39-run victory on Thursday at the Ageas Bowl, has moved him into the top 20 for the first time, with a rise of 78 places to 20th.
Outside the top 20, Michael Lumb rises 14 to 41st, Ravi Bopara 13 to 65th and Joe Root 267 to 71st after his 90 not out on Thursday.
Meanwhile, England’s pace duo of Steven Finn and Jade Dernbach have entered the bowling top 10 for the first time. Finn, who took two wickets in the series, is up six spots to sixth and Dernbach’s six scalps move him up 12 places to seventh.
England and Australia’s 1-1 series draw keeps them respectively in sixth and seventh in the team table, although Australia no longer share seventh having moved clear of New Zealand.