Salman Ali Agha Ranks, Babar Azam slips in ICC ODI Rankings

Pakistan all-rounder Salman Ali Agha set a career-high in Dubai following his match-winning performance against Sri Lanka. Ex-captain Babar Azam, nonetheless, slipped further in the ICC Men's ODI Rankings, announced on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Salman guided Pakistan to an exhilarating 6-run victory in the 1st ODI at Rawalpindi, where he hit an unbeaten 105 in 87 balls. The best innings of his career propelled him 14 positions on the ICC Men’s ODI Batting Rankings to 16th, and with 639 rating points, his highest so far.

At the same time, Saim Ayub maintained his good form, gaining 18 positions to share the 35th spot after back-to-back fifties against South Africa, even though he made only six runs against Sri Lanka.

Senior players experienced mixed results. Babar Azam, who scored 29 in the first ODI, fell two spots to 7th. Mohammad Rizwan dropped four places to 27th after scoring just five runs, and Fakhar Zaman went down five spots to 31st after making 32 runs off 55 balls..

Haris Rauf showed improvement in bowling ranking, climbing three positions to number 29 after picking 4 wickets against Sri Lanka. Having missed the Rawalpindi ODI, mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed nonetheless climbed the rankings by 18 positions to 20th place, due to his best ODI performance of 4-27 against South Africa.

Captain Shaheen Shah Afridi lost a place to 16th. In the all-rounder list, the powerful form of Salman Ali Agha worked in his favor, as he shot up the list by seven positions to 11th.

Naseem Shah moved three positions up to 28th, Saim Ayub moved 12 positions to 35th, and Shaheen Afridi moved two positions down to 30th.