Sunday 24 / November / 2024
Muscat: An exclusive club of top-five ranked ICC Men's ODI all-rounders now features Oman's skipper Zeeshan Maqsood. He is in the company of Bangladesh's all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, Rashid Khan of Afghanistan and Zimbabwe's Sikandar Raza.
This is the first time that an Omani cricketer has scaled such heights, adding shine to his success, Maqsood is the only cricketer from Associate nations among the top-five.
As per the latest ICC rankings, Maqsood attained his career-best rankings with total rating points of 252 on April 29.
Maqsood also made the biggest jump among the 20 cricketers featured in the latest rankings, climbing three places to reach world No. 5 from the previous rating update of the world governing body.
Among the 20 are star players of the likes of Mitchell Santner (New Zealand, 6th), Wanindu Hasaranga (Sri Lanka, 9th), Chris Woakes (England, 10th), Alzarri Joseph (West Indies, 11th) Hardik Pandya (India, 13th ), Glenn Maxwell (Australia, 14th), Shadab Khan (Pakistan, 15th), Josh Hazlewood (Australia, 15th), and Moeen Ali (England, 20th).
It has been a long journey to the top-five for Maqsood, Oman's long-serving skipper. The 35-year-old left-handed batter and left-arm orthodox bowler was ranked 216 in 2019 before breaking into the top-100 in 2020 with the best rank of 77.
He then catapulted into 24th spot in 2021, then a year later, Maqsood made the world notice by reaching No.8.
His achievements were hailed by the ICC when he was conferred with the 2021 ICC Men's Associate Cricketer of the Year award in January 2022.
From 2019-2023, Maqsood has played 37 ODIs and scored a total of 1,021 runs with the highest of 109 [against USA] and an average of 31.90. He made his ODI debut on April 27, 2019 vs Namibia.
Maqsood picked up 53 wickets in 37 games with the best figures of 4/15 against UAE. He had an economy rate of 4.06 and an average of 22.94 that included four four-wicket hauls.
Maqsood scored 969 runs in a series (ICC World Cricket League 2, 2019-23) to be fourth best in the world for most runs in a series by a captain. He is also among the top-10 bowlers for most wickets in the same series, having picked 47 in 34 games.
The Oman captain expressed happiness and said: “It is a great honor for me to be up there among the top-five all-rounders of the world.
“It is a great achievement to be No 5 in the world. This has been possible due to the support of Oman Cricket board, coaches, team-mates, and fans. I will try to push further as there is plenty to achieve ahead.”
Maqsood said “hard work and dedication has been the key in his climb to the top-five.”
“My individual rankings apart, it is the delight to have played my role in many Oman victories that gives me more satisfaction and I am looking ahead to contribute more in the team’s success.”
