MNN (Sports Desk); Pakistan’s top-order batter Babar Azam has slipped to third place in the latest ICC Men’s ODI Player Rankings after a below-par performance against the West Indies.
Babar scored just 56 runs across three matches, averaging 18.66, which caused his rating points to drop to 751. As a result, he has been overtaken by India’s ODI captain Rohit Sharma, who now occupies the second spot.
Among other Pakistani players, ODI captain Mohammad Rizwan also fell one place, moving from 21st to 22nd with 602 points. Opening batter Fakhar Zaman, who missed the West Indies series due to injury, dropped four places to 27th with 590 points. Imam-ul-Haq and Agha Salman also saw declines, slipping to 37th and 41st respectively. Saim Ayub suffered the largest fall among Pakistan’s batters, dropping nine places to 46th, while opening batter Abdullah Shafique improved, rising seven places to 90th with 428 points.
In the ICC ODI bowlers’ rankings, left-arm pacer Shaheen Afridi fell one spot to 13th with 599 points after taking just four wickets in three matches. Haris Rauf dropped three places to 27th, and Naseem Shah slipped one place to 43rd with 493 points. Spinner Abrar Ahmed rose three places to 54th, Mohammad Nawaz held onto 64th position, while Mohammad Wasim Jr fell four places to 71st.
Sri Lanka’s Maheesh Theekshana continues to lead the ODI bowling rankings, followed by India’s Kuldeep Yadav in second and South Africa’s Keshav Maharaj in third.