Pakistan’s top batter, Babar Azam has once again finished the year 2023 by securing a coveted position in the top 5 of the ICC Rankings, marking his second consecutive year among the cricketing elite.
Babar Azam finished the 2023 ICC batting rankings as ranked 5th in Tests, 1st in ODIs, and 4th in T20Is. Although 2023 was not a great year for him, he still ended the year as one of the best batters in world cricket.
In the previous year, 2022, he also finished in the top batters ranking, holding 3rd in Tests, 1st in ODIs, and 4th in T20Is, which was his best year yet.
Babar Azam, who was at the top of the ODI batting rankings for almost three years, lost his ranking during the 2023 World Cup. In the last month of the year, he returned to the top spot, displacing the rising Indian star, Shubman Gill, who had taken his place.
It should be noted that the ODI World Cup 2023 turned out to be a nightmare for Babar Azam both with the bat and as a captain. He decided to leave the captaincy of the Pakistan cricket team across all formats and decided to continue as a batter.
Babar struggled to perform well with the bat in the major tournament, scoring only 320 runs across nine innings. However, he did manage to score a total of 1,065 runs in 25 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) during 2023, maintaining an average of 46.30.
Babar Azam’s last ODI century was against Nepal in the Asia Cup 2023. After that, he failed to deliver his best show with the bat and faced a lot of criticism from some former cricketers, which led him to step down from his captaincy.
Babar scored 204 runs in 5 Test matches with an average of 22.66 and did not score a single fifty in 2023 in Tests. In T20Is, he scored 913 runs in 2023 with an average of 43.47, including a brilliant hundred against New Zealand earlier in 2023.
Earlier, former England captain Nasser Hussain predicted that Babar Azam would shine in 2024.
Nasser Hussain expressed that Babar Azam must perform well in the June 2024 T20 World Cup, which will take place in the West Indies and the USA. In 2022, Pakistan reached the final but was defeated by England. Babar Azam needs to step up his game for the team’s success this time.
He said, “I think it is a massive year for him and Pakistan. He has given up captaincy, that may be the weight off his shoulders. The biggest thing he can do for Pakistan cricket is get loads of runs. They need him to get runs. There will be a T20 World Cup in the Caribbean. They got to the finals last time. They will need their ex-skipper to put in a real performance.”
The 29-year-old once again failed to deliver his best performance with the bat in the recent ongoing Test series against Australia on Aussie soil. His fans are hoping that he will bounce back strongly this year, as he is known for his skill with the bat.
