Babar Azam Dethrones Virat Kohli To Become No. 1 ODI Batsman
Published - 14 Apr 2021, 04:12 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:44 AM
Pakistan’s ace batsman and captain Babar Azam has ended India captain Virat Kohli’s supremacy at the ICC ODI batting rankings and dethroned him from the no.1 spot to become the numero uno ODI batsman.
This also made Babar only the fourth Pakistan batsman to achieve the no.1 ranking in the ICC Men’s ODI Player Rankings. The new rankings were revealed by the ICC in their weekly update on Wednesday. The 26-year-old’s player of the match effort of an 82-ball 94 in the last match of the three ODIs series against South Africa earned him 13 rating points.
Virat Kohli Slips To No.2 Spot In The ICC ODI Batting Rankings
Babar Azam gathered 13 rating points thanks to his innings in the 3rd and final ODI against the Proteas, which took him to 865 rating points and he frog leaped Virat Kohli to become the new no.1 ranked ODI batsman and now leads the Indian captain by 8 rating points.
Babar, who had made his Pakistan debut in 2015, had started the series against South Africa at 837 rating points but moved up to 858 (ahead of Kohli) thanks to his brilliant 103 in the 1st match, but had then dropped to 852 points after scoring 32 in the second ODI in the weekly ratings.
This ended Virat Kohli’s 1258-day supremacy at the top spot in ICC ODI batting rankings. And by becoming the no.1 ODI batsman, Babar Azam became the fourth Pakistan batsman to do so, after Zaheer Abbas (1983-84), Javed Miandad (1988-89), and Mohammad Yousuf (2003).
In Tests, Babar has attained the best of the fifth position and is currently ranked sixth while in T20Is he is third but has been number one in the past.
Not only Babar, but Fakhar Zaman attained the career-best ranking of 7 after his 193 in the first ODI and 101 in the 3rd ODI against the South African team in the recent ODI series. Left-arm fast bowler Shaheen Afridi (11th spot), Mohammad Nawaz (96th spot) were other progressions in the ICC ODI rankings.
