Pakistan captain Babar Azam on Wednesday ended India captain Virat Kohli’s long reign at the top of the ICC Men’s ODI Player Rankings for batsmen and became only the fourth batsman from his country to attain number one position.
The 26-year-old’s player of the match effort of an 82-ball 94 in the last match of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League series against South Africa in Centurion helped him gain 13 rating points to reach 865 points.
He now leads the Indian captain by eight points, the ICC said in a statement.
Babar, a star of the ICC Under-19 Men’s Cricket World Cups in 2010 and 2012 and who has been playing ODIs since 2015, had started the series against South Africa at 837 rating points but moved up to 858 (ahead of Kohli) after his score of 103 in the first match.
He dropped to 852 by the time of the last weekly rankings update with a score of 32 in the second ODI.
In Tests, Babar has attained a best of fifth position and is currently ranked sixth while in T20Is he is third but has been number one in the past.
