Babar Azam loses top batter ranking to Shubman Gill

WEB DESK: Pakistan’s Babar Azam, who has held the top spot in the ODI batter rankings for the majority of the past four years, lost the top spot on Wednesday to India’s Shubman Gill.

Until today, Babar held the top spot with an ICC rating of 786. However, Shubman Gill took over the first place position on Wednesday, as his rating increased from 761 to 796, while Babar dropped to 773. The monumental shift at the top of the ICC ODI batter rankings is due to the two players’ recent performances.

The Pakistani batter has struggled in the recent tri-nation series. In the first match of the series, Babar only managed to make 10 runs off the 23 deliveries he faced before he was caught out by Glenn Phillips on a delivery from Bracewell. Despite Pakistan’s victory in the next match against South Africa, Babar struggled once again, only scoring 23 runs off 19 deliveries before Wiaan Mulder sent him off via lbw. The finals against New Zealand was Babar’s best outing, but that isn’t saying much since he only scored 29 runs off 34 deliveries.

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While February has been a struggle for Babar, it’s been incredible for Shubman who had three fantastic knocks in India’s whitewash of England. The first match of the series saw Shubman score 87 runs off 96 deliveries, hitting 14 fours in the process. It was the largest score of the game, and helped lead India to a comfortable victory. The second match saw Shubman score another half century, adding 60 runs to India’s total. His 136 run opening stand with Rohit Sharma propelled India forward in their chase, leading to another comfortable victory. Shubman’s best performance came in the final match, as he scored 112 runs off 102 deliveries, hitting 14 fours and three sixes along the way, to lead India to a 356 run first innings total. That century made Shubman the fastest ever to reach 2500 runs, which he did in 50 innings. England weren’t able to perform in the face such a threatening score, and India completed their whitewash.

With the Champions Trophy kicking off in full effect today with Pakistan and New Zealand facing off in the opener, Babar will have opportunities to reclaim that top spot.

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