Lauren Bell Rises to 17th After Three-Wicket Haul
Lauren Bell moved back into the top 20 of the ICC Women’s T20I bowling rankings after taking three for 29 against New Zealand. The England bowler is now 17th, with career-best rating points of 562.
Bell’s New Zealand Spell
Bell picked up New Zealand’s top three batters in the last match and finished with figures that pushed her back into the upper tier of the list. Three wickets for 29 runs was enough to lift her seven places and put her in 17th position.
The rating increase is the clearest marker of the move. Bell’s 562 points stand as a career best, and the jump comes from a match in which she removed the opposition’s leading three batters rather than sharing the damage across the innings.
ICC Rankings Shift
The ranking update landed during a busy stretch for the women’s game. The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in England and Wales is less than a month away, and the latest movement gives Bell a stronger spot going into that period.
Pakistan also made progress in the same T20I rankings update after their three-match series against Zimbabwe. Fatima Sana climbed four places to 23rd among the batters and six slots to joint-29th among the bowlers, while remaining sixth in the all-rounders’ list with career-best rating points of 328. Ayesha Zafar surged 190 places to joint-52nd in the batting rankings, giving that update more than one major move.
England And New Zealand
Bell’s rise sat alongside several other ranking changes from the wider ICC release. England’s Charlie Dean advanced four slots to 58th in the ODI bowling rankings, Alice Capsey moved up two places to 75th in the ODI batting rankings after scoring 45, and Emma Lamb progressed 16 places to 37th among the bowlers after taking two wickets for 29 in seven overs.
The England-New Zealand series ended level at 1-1 after New Zealand beat hosts England by 17 runs via the DLS method in Cardiff in the third and final ICC Women’s Championship series match. Brooke Halliday moved from 17th into the top 15 of the ODI batting rankings, and Maddy Green was named Player of the Series after scoring 125 runs in two matches. Bell’s ranking lift therefore came from a strong individual spell, not from England winning the series.
