Lahore, 4 September 2024 (TDI): Pakistan’s seasoned batter Babar Azam has dropped to 12th place in the ICC Test rankings after a lacklustre performance in the recently concluded Test series against Bangladesh.
Babar scored only 64 runs across four innings of the Bangladesh Test series, including a two-ball duck in the first Test. He was placed 9th before the start of the second Test. However, after failing to score runs, he slipped to the 12th spot in the Test rankings for batters.
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Babar has been struggling in the Test format. He hasn’t scored a single fifty in the last 16 innings.
Middle-order batter Saud Shakeel has also dropped from 13th to 20th position. He scored a valiant 141 in the first innings of the opening Test but failed to score runs in the remaining three innings of the series.
Meanwhile, wicketkeeper batter Mohammad Rizwan rose three places to 10th, thanks to his 171* and 51 in the first Test. Salman Ali Agha, who scored 57 and an unbeaten 47 in two innings of the second Test, also moved up nine spots to 31st.
On the other hand, Joe Root extended his lead as the top Test batter on the back of two consecutive centuries in both innings of the second Sri Lanka Test.
He now has 922 rating points, 63 more than New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, who follows him in the second spot with 859 rating points.
Daryll Mitchell (768), Steven Smith (757), and Harry Brook (753) are on the third, fourth, and fifth spots.
