Babar Azam becomes the no.1 ODI batsman replacing Kohli

Babar Azam has replacing Virat Kohli in the ODI rankings. Pakistan’s top batsman Babar Azam becomes the No.1 ODI batsman from Virat Kohli. Virat Kohli was the top of ODI batting rankings from the year 2017 but now it has been decorated on the head of Babar Azam.

Babar Azam became only the fourth Pakistani batsman to achieve the number 1 ODI ranking. Earlier, only Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad, Mohammad Yousuf had reached the number 1 ODI rank.

Only the formality of this ranking was left. In the third match of the ODI series against South Africa held last week, Babar Azam missed his century in an attempt to hit a six off the last ball but did not miss out on becoming the first-ranked batsman.

After the India and England ODI series ended, there was a difference of only 20 points between the two. Virat Kohli scored 129 runs with the help of 2 fifties in the series from England. At the same time Babar Azam with the help of 1 century and 1 half-century
Scored 226 runs in 3 ODIs against South Africa. For this reason, Babar has come very close to Kohli.

Last week Babar Azam had 852 points and Virat Kohli had 857 points but as soon as the ICC updated the points table, Babar Azam became number 1 with 865 points and Virat Kohli slipped to second place with 857 points.

Surprisingly, Babar Azam has been ahead of Virat Kohli by 4 and now only 2 places in T20 cricket’s rankings for a long time. Babar Azam is just one place behind Virat Kohli in Test cricket but a difference of 54 points between the two. Which is not possible for Babar to cross easily.

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Virat scored his last ODI century as an unbeaten 114 against the West Indies at the Port of Spain on 14 August 2019, but since then no century has been scored with his bat, although he has been thrice in the meantime by 80 runs. Have come forward

Virat Kohli has lost his number 1 rank today due to two years away from a century in ODI cricket. If they want this rank back then they will have to consistently perform well in the ODI series after the IPL.