Nepali national cricket team all-rounder Dipendra Singh Airee has achieved historic success in the T20 International rankings. According to the latest rankings (October 1, 2024) released by the International Cricket Council (ICC), Airee has climbed to the second-highest position, making it his best ranking to date. Previously ranked sixth, he jumped four spots. Ahead of him is England’s Liam Livingstone. Airee has 230 rating points, while Livingstone leads with 253 points. Australia’s Marcus Stoinis dropped from second to third place, followed by Zimbabwe’s Sikandar Raza in fourth, Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga in fifth, Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi in sixth, India’s Hardik Pandya in seventh, Pakistan’s Imad Wasim and South Africa’s Aiden Markram tied for eighth, and Namibia’s Gerhard Erasmus in tenth.
This is the highest ranking ever achieved by a Nepali player in ICC international rankings. Airee is currently ranked 43rd in T20I batting and 70th in bowling. In ODI rankings, he is 63rd in bowling and 165th in batting.
Since April this year, Dipendra has consistently been in the top 10 of the T20 all-rounder rankings.
In T20I bowling rankings, Nepal’s fast bowler Sompal Kami is ranked 91st, while in batting, Rohit Paudel is 61st, Asif Sheikh 70th, and Kushal Malla is 100th. In the ODI batting rankings, Asif Sheikh is 82nd, Kushal Bhurtel 83rd, and Rohit Paudel 87th, while in bowling, Sandeep Lamichhane is 46th, Lalit Rajbanshi 51st, Dipendra Singh Airee 63rd, and Karan KC is 87th.
In the team rankings, Nepal is placed 17th in both ODI and T20I formats.
Airee’s Record Achievements
Dipendra Singh Airee made his T20I debut in July 2018 against the Netherlands at Lord’s in England. He has played 70 T20 Internationals, scoring 1,694 runs in 62 innings, with one century and nine half-centuries. His century (110*) came against Malaysia on home soil in April 2022. In bowling, he has taken 45 wickets in 45 innings, including two instances where he claimed four wickets in a single match.
Dipendra Singh Airee holds the record for the highest strike rate in a single T20 international innings. In September 2023, during the Asian Games against Mongolia, Airee smashed an unbeaten 52 runs off just 10 balls, including 8 sixes. He achieved this feat with an astounding strike rate of 520.0, a record that no other international cricketer has come close to matching.
Additionally, during the same innings, Airee set a new record for the fastest fifty in T20 internationals. He completed his half-century in just 9 balls, breaking the previous record held by former Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh, who had scored a 50 in 12 balls, a record that stood for 16 years.
In April of this year, Dipendra added another incredible achievement to his name during the ACC Premier Cup T20 match against Qatar. Airee smashed six consecutive sixes in one over, becoming only the fifth cricketer in international cricket to do so. Prior to Airee, Yuvraj Singh and Kieron Pollard had achieved this feat in T20 internationals, while Herschelle Gibbs of South Africa and Jaskaran Malhotra of the USA had done it in one-day internationals.
Dipendra also holds a rare record in T20I cricket, having never been dismissed for a duck (scoring zero) in his career. In 62 innings, he has always scored at least one run. He is second only to former West Indies cricketer Marlon Samuels, who was never dismissed for a duck in 65 innings. If Airee avoids getting out for zero in the next four innings, he will set a new world record. Among active cricketers, he holds the record for the most T20I innings without a duck.
Airee is also Nepal’s highest run-scorer in T20 Internationals. In 65 innings across 70 matches, he has scored 1,694 runs at an average of 36.04 and a strike rate of 143.43, with one century and nine half-centuries. Rohit Paudel is second with 1,187 runs in 53 innings from 55 matches, Asif Sheikh is third with 1,151 runs in 50 innings from 50 matches, and Kushal Bhurtel is fourth with 1,145 runs in 48 innings from 49 matches. No other Nepali player has crossed 1,000 runs. In T20I bowling, Airee ranks fifth among Nepali bowlers, with 45 wickets. Sandeep Lamichhane leads with 106 wickets from 56 innings, followed by Karan KC (93 wickets from 73 innings), Avinash Bohara (75 wickets from 59 innings), and Sompal Kami (65 wickets from 70 innings).
