India captain Virat Kohli’s long reign at the top of the ICC batsmen’s rankings came to an end on Wednesday when his Pakistani counterpart Babar Azam became just the fourth player from his country to attain number one spot. The 26-year-old right-player-of-the-match hander’s performance of an 82-ball 94 in the series’ final game against South Africa in Centurion helped him accumulate 13 rating points, bringing his total to 865. According to the ICC, he now has an eight-point advantage over the Indian captain.
Babar, who played in the Under-19 World Cups in 2010 and 2012 and has been playing ODIs since 2015, began the series against South Africa with an 837 rating point total but stepped up to 858 after scoring 103 in the first match.
With a score of 32 in the second ODI, he fell to 852 by the time of the last weekly rankings check.
Babar has followed in the footsteps of compatriots Zaheer Abbas (1983-84), Javed Miandad (1988-89), and Mohammad Yousuf (2003) by breaking Kohli’s 1,258-day reign as the number one ODI batsman.
In Tests, Babar has attained the best of fifth position and is currently ranked sixth while in T20Is he is third but has been number one in the past.
Fakhar Zaman, a left-handed opener, is another Pakistan batsman who has climbed the ODI batting rankings, climbing five spots to a career-high seventh place after a knock of 101.
Due to their three-wicket hauls in the match, left-arm fast bowler Shaheen Afridi (up to four places to 11th) and left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz (up 29 places to 96th) have advanced.
Rohit Sharma, Kohli’s deputy, is in second place with 825 points, ahead of Ross Taylor of New Zealand. There are no other Indians in the top ten batters in the new batting order.
Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah has maintained his fourth-place among bowlers, behind New Zealand’s Trent Boult, Afghanistan’s Mujeeb Ur Rahman, and another Kiwi pacer Matt Henry.
Ravichandran Ashwin is the only Indian to make the top ten all-rounders list, coming in at number nine.
Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh tops the field ahead of England’s disabled all-rounder Ben Stokes and Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi.
