The young Indian phenom Shubman Gill has surpassed Pakistani captain Babar Azam to become the world’s top ODI hitter, according to the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) most recent rankings, which were released on Wednesday.
Due to his strong start to India’s ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup campaign, Gill overtook Babar at the top of the rankings. In the process, he became only the fourth player from his nation to hold the No. 1 ODI batter rating, following Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, and Sachin Tendulkar.
In the last week, the right-hand batsman has scored 219 runs from six innings in the competition, including scores of 92 against Sri Lanka and 23 against South Africa.
After over two years as the top-ranked ODI hitter in the world, Babar’s reign has come to an end. He has scored 282 runs in eight knockouts at the World Cup, moving down six rating points to second place.
Thanks to his 543 runs in the World Cup, Virat Kohli climbs three spots to fourth position, within one rating point of South Africa’s Quinton de Kock, who is ranked third.
Indian bowlers dominate the top spot in the ODI bowler rankings because of their exciting World Cup 2023 performance.
However, after just one week, Mohammed Siraj of India overtook Shah Shah Afridi as the top-ranked ODI bowler in the world. Siraj moved up two spots to reclaim the top spot, “while teammates Kuldeep Yadav (up three places to fourth), Jasprit Bumrah (up three spots to eighth), and Mohammed Shami (up seven places to 10th) are all nestled within the top 10,” the ICC wrote on its blog.
Keshav Maharaj, a spinner from South Africa, took second place, while Adam Zampa, an Australian, came in third.