Pakistan’s all-format captain, Babar Azam has overtaken India’s Virat Kohli in the ICC Test batter rankings. Babar is now ranked eighth in the world while Kohli has dropped down two places to ninth. The flamboyant top-order batter is now ranked ahead of Kohli in all three formats of the game and is the only batter in the world to be ranked amongst the top 10 across all three formats.
Babar is already ranked as the number one batter in ODI and T20I formats while Kohli is ranked number two in ODIs and number eleven in T20Is. While Babar has been piling on the runs and scoring centuries for fun over the past two years, Kohli has not been able to hit his usual standards and is struggling for runs.
Kohli has not scored a century for the past two years which is the longest period for him without a century in international cricket ever since his debut in 2008. Babar, on the other hand, has scored nine international centuries during this period. Overall though, Babar has still a long way to go to match the century tally of Kohli. Kohli has 70 international centuries to his name while Babar has scored 20 in his short career so far.
Babar will be determined to climb up the Test batter rankings while also maintaining his position as the number one ranked player in limited-overs cricket. The 27-year old became only the second player in the world to finish the year as number one in both ODIs and T20Is. Previously, Australian legend, Ricky Ponting, had achieved the feat in 2005.
