Indian captain Virat Kohli lost his top position to Pakistani captain Babar Azam in the latest ICC batsmen rankings. Babar Azam became the world’s number one male cricketer in the new rankings released on Wednesday. Virat Kohli was at this place for a long time. A Pakistani batsman reached the top of the ICC ODI rankings in 2003 for the last time. In this way, Babar Azam has achieved this feat after 18 years on behalf of Pakistan.
Babar Azam is only the fourth Pakistani to become the number one batsman in the world. Before him, only Zaheer Abbas (1983–84), Javed Miandad (1988–89), and Mohammad Yousuf have reached this stage. Babar, who was a part of the 2010 and 2012 Under-19 World Cups, has been part of the Pakistan ODI team since 2015.
Pakistan recently won the three-match ODI series 2–1 against South Africa. Babar had brilliant innings of 94 runs in the series decider. Virat Kohli has slipped to second place, while Team India’s vice-captain Rohit Sharma is at number three in the limited over format.
New Zealand’s Ross Taylor remains at number four and Australian captain Aaron Finch at number five. Babar Azam has 865 rating points in the latest released rankings, while Virat Kohli has 857 rating points. Pakistan opener Fakhar Zaman also batted brilliantly in the ODI series and he has also benefited in the rankings. Fakhar Zaman has reached number seven in the latest rankings. Apart from Virat and Rohit, Shikhar Dhawan is also among the top-20 batsmen. Dhawan is on the 17th number.
