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Picture Credit: Twitter

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced the recent rankings of the players where Pakistan captain Babar Azam has dethroned India captain Virat Kohli as the number one ranked ODI batsman.

Virat Kohli, considered as one of the best in the business was the No.1 batsman for a record 1258 days before Azam took his place after having a successful South Africa series. He has scored at a great pace, where he has managed 103, 31 and 94 runs in three games, respectively. On the other hand, Team India last played against England at home last month but Kohli failed to perform well with the bat.

Babar Azam’s match-winning 82-ball 94 in the final ODI helped him earn 13 points in the rankings to become the top-most batsman with a career-best 865 points. Meanwhile, Kohli, with 857, is now placed second. And, India’s swashbuckling opener Rohit Sharma is at the third position with 825 points.

Don’t get too comfy at the top: Wasim Jaffer

While many have congratulated Babar Azam for his career-best ranking, former India cricketer Wasim Jaffer was no different. However, he did in his own style. While quoting the ICC Media’s official tweet, he wished the stunning batsman with a wink and wrote “Congratulations @babarazam258, well deserved. But don’t get too comfy at the top, you know how much Virat Kohli loves chasing #ICCRankings,”.

Check Jaffer's post here:

Meanwhile, Babar Azam has become only the fourth Pakistan batsman to be in the top in ICC ODI rankings history after Zaheer Abbas (1983-84), Javed Miandad (1988-89), and Mohammad Yousuf (2003) as well.

In the longer format, Babar Azam is ranked at sixth, whereas in T20Is, he is at the third place, although his career-best so far was at fifth in Tests.

On the other hand, Fakhar Zaman jumped up in the ODI batting rankings, gaining five places to reach a career-best seventh position after his blitzy knock of 101 in the 2nd ODI.