WEB DESK
In the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) rankings for ODI batsmen, Pakistan Captain Babar Azam has climbed to the No.1 spot. Azam replaced his Indian counterpart Virat Kohli, who was occupying the top position for nearly three and a half years.
Babar’s 82-ball 94 in Pakistan’s third ODI against South Africa, took his rating points to 865, eclipsing Kohli’s 857 points and thus pushing the Indian captain to second place.
He is the fourth player from Pakistan to top the ODI batting rankings after Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad, and Mohammad Yousuf.
The Pakistan Captain made his ODI debut in May 2015 and has scored 3808 runs at an average of 56.83 in 80 matches thus far. He has 13 centuries and 17 half-centuries to his name.
Babar has taken just 76 innings to achieve the feat going past South Africa star Hashim Amla who until now was the fastest, having scored his 13th ODI hundred in 83 innings. India skipper Virat Kohli got there in 86 innings.
Rohit Sharma with 825 points is the only other Indian player who has featured in the latest top 10 batting chart.
Among bowlers, Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah has held on to his fourth position behind top-ranked Trent Boult of New Zealand, Afghanistan’s Mujeeb Ur Rahman and another Kiwi pacer Matt Henry.
R Ashwin is the lone Indian to find a place in the top 10 all-rounders’ list at the No. 9 spot.
Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan leads the pack ahead of injured England all-rounder Ben Stokes and Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi.
Meanwhile, Pakistan opener Fakhar Zaman has jumped five slots to a career-best ranking of seventh after his knock of 101 in the third ODI while left-arm fast bowler Shaheen Afridi has moved up four places to a career-best 11th place.