Monitoring Desk
DUBAI: Pakistan captain Babar Azam managed to hold on to his number-one position in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s ODI Batting Rankings. Babar, who scored an anchoring half-century against arch-rivals India on Saturday, got the reward for his performance as he kept India’s batting prodigy Shubman Gill at bay.
The right-handed Indian batter is ranked second with 818 rating points, in touching distance with Babar Azam, who occupies the top position with 836 points.
Meanwhile, Pakistan opening batters Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq, who were recently among the Top 10 batters, are now ranked 13th and 10th respectively.
In-form South African opener Quinton de Kock, who scored back-to-back centuries in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023 pipped his teammate Rassie van der Dussen to claim the third position in the rankings. Indian captain Rohit Sharma made a big leap of five places to sixth after amassing 131 runs against Afghanistan then backing it up with an imperious 86 from 63 balls against arch-rivals Pakistan. Afghanistan opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz — jumping 19 spots to 18th — and Netherlands captain Scott Edwards — climbing 16 places to 27th — made notable surges in the batting rankings.
In the ICC ODI bowling rankings, however, experienced New Zealand pacer Trent Boult is in touching distance to occupy the top spot following a destructive spell against Bangladesh. He is a mere one rating point behind leader Josh Hazlewood after ascending a place in the latest update.
Boult, who returned figures of 2/45 against Bangladesh after also dismissing Towhid Hridoy, also completed 200 wickets in ODIs. Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan climbs to fourth in bowling rankings while South Africa’s Keshav Maharaj jumps seven spots to equal fifth alongside Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
