Babar Azam’s aim of being No.1 in all formats is on the verge of a reality
Babar Azam-Virat Kohli-Joe Root (Image Source: Twitter)
The battle of the best batter intensifies as the latest rankings of the international cricketing authority have been updated. With shuffles in the rankings, the competition for the top spot has gained even more fire.
Test cricket over the last year has been dominated by the English batter Joe Root. His performances in the longest format of the game over the past year have made him the biggest mover in the charts. Root has risen two spots in the ranking and has claimed the number 2 place just behind Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne. Another prime reason behind Root’s rise is his match-winning century against England in the first of the series against New Zealand at Lord’s. His knock on the mat made him the second English player and the 14th player overall to register 10,000 runs in Test cricket. Root is now just 10 ranking points behind Labuschagne. He will have a chance to claim the top spot while playing against New Zealand in the second test of the series at Nottingham on Friday.
Root’s rise has caused a re-shuffle in the top five of the batters’ rankings. Another start Australian batter Steve Smith has dropped to the third place in the rankings. On the other hand, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam is slowly creeping towards being the number one batter in all formats of the game. He has climbed to the fourth spot in the rankings by climbing two places. Kane Williamson’s lean patch with the bat continued in the Lord’s test and that saw them drop to number five in the rankings dropping by two places.
Besides the rankings for the batters, the bowlers’ chart has also been updated. There are shifts and shuffles in this list also. The Kiwi pacer, Kylie Jamieson has been the biggest mover in the rankings. Jamieson on the back of his brilliant show in the test against England, where he bagged six wickets in the match, has moved up two places to the third spot. This has caused the Indian pace star, Jasprit Bumrah (fourth), and Pakistani bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi (fifth) to drop by one place respectively.
Australian test captain, Pat Cummins (901points) remains the number one bowler in Tests. He is 51 ranking points ahead of his nearest competitor in India’s Ravichandran Ashwin (850 points).
Notably, Ashwin is also second in the all-rounders’ ranking. He is just behind his Indian teammate Ravindra Jadeja. The third spot in this list is occupied by New Zealand’s Kylie Jamieson.
