ICC ODI Ranking: Babar Azam removed Virat Kohli from top in ICC men’s ODI rankings

Babar became the fourth player to achieve the top position in the rankings from his country. The 26-year-old Babar scored an 82-ball 94 in the final match of the series against South Africa at Centurion, which helped him to 13 ratings points and reached 865 points.

Kohli topped the batsmen’s ranking for 1,258 days, which lasted more than three years. Babar achieved number one ODI batsmen like compatriot Zaheer Abbas (1983–84), Javed Miandad (1988–89) and Mohammad Yusuf (2003).

The International Cricket Council (ICC) said in a statement that Babur now leads by eight points over Kohli (857 points).

Babar had 837 rating points before the series against South Africa but he reached 858 points (more than Kohli) with an innings of 103 runs in the first match.

With a score of 32 in the second ODI, he slipped to 852 points in the previous weekly rankings.

Babar has achieved the best fifth position in the Test and currently occupies the sixth position, while in T20 International he is in third place but he has also been number one first.

Left-handed opener Fakhar Zaman is another Pakistani batsman who has risen to the top of the ODI batting list, jumping five places from his 101-run innings to take a career-best seventh position.

Left-arm fast bowler Shaheen Afridi (up four places to a career-best 11th position) and left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz (up 29 places to 96th) have also progressed by taking three wickets in the match.

Indian vice-captain Rohit Sharma is third in the rankings with 825 points and is the second cricketer in the list of top 10 batsmen in the country. He is ahead of New Zealand’s Ross Taylor.

Among the bowlers, Indian fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah retained his fourth position.

Ravichandran Ashwin is the only Indian in ninth place in the list of top 10 all rounders.