In the latest update of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) weekly ranking charts on December 20, former Pakistan captain Babar Azam took the cricketing world by surprise as he claimed the top spot in the ODI batting rankings, overthrowing Shubman Gill.
It’s noteworthy that both Babar Azam and Shubman Gill have been out of action in the ODI format since their teams exited the ICC World Cup 2023 in November.
Despite the absence of recent game time, Babar Azam secured the No.1 position with 824 points, outscoring Gill by 14 rating points, who now stands at the 2nd spot with an identical 810 rating.
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Virat Kohli is now ranked third in the rearranged rankings, while Indian captain Rohit Sharma is now ranked fourth.
Babar Azam, however, has dropped one spot to fifth in the Test rankings from fourth due to his subpar showing in the most recent bilateral tournament against Australia.
Suryakumar Yadav is still the biggest player in the T20 format, leading the T20I rankings by a comfortable 100 rating points over Mohammed Rizwan, who is ranked second with 787 rating points. Fourth place goes to Babar Azam in the T20I rankings.
