Summary Babar Azam has gone to eighth spot in the ODI rankings.
DUBAI (Daily Dunya) – Pakistan young guns Babar Azam and Hasan Ali have improved their one-day international (ODI) positions in latest rankings after having a good West Indies series, reported Roznama Dunya on Thursday.
According to details, Babar Azam has gone to eighth spot, his career best position, in the rankings after scoring 154 runs in three matches including a match-winning century.
Hasan Ali picked up six wickets in the series and climbed 14 positions in the rankings. He, at the moment, is sitting at 34th spot.
Mohammad Hafeez managed to improve his position as well in the batting rankings and has come to number 20. He scored 201 runs in the West Indies series, with scores of 88, 32 and 81 in three matches. Hafeez has also jumped up 10 places in the bowling category, and holds 27th spot at the moment. He picked up three wickets in the series.
South Africa’s AB de Villiers tops the ODI batting rankings followed by Australia’s David Warner and India’s Virat Kohli. Among bowlers, South Africa’s Imran Tahir tops the charts, with Australia’s Mitchell Starc at number two New Zealand’s Trent Boult at three. In all-rounders category, Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan holds the top spot followed by Pakistan’s Mohammad Hafeez and Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi.
After the series, both Pakistan and West Indies failed to strengthen their respective positions to qualify directly for the 2019 ICC World Cup (WC). As per details, the Green Shirts and Windies needed to whitewash each other to make their chances stronger for WC direct qualification.
Had Pakistan beat West Indies 3-0, they would have gone to seventh in the rankings, and had West Indies downed Pakistan 3-0, they would have pushed them to ninth spot, claiming Pakistan’s eighth position in the rankings.
However, the end result of series was 2-1 in favor of the guests which did not affect the rankings of both teams. Pakistan remained at number eight, and West Indies at number nine.
The series win gave Pakistan only one point, who now have a total score of 90. West Indies lost one point after series defeat and have a tally of 83 on the table.
It is pertinent here to mention that only top eight teams by September 30 will qualify directly for the 2019 ICC WC, and others will have to play qualifying round to enter the mega event.
