Pakistan’s Abrar Ahmed and Shaheen Shah Afridi have both moved into the world’s top five ODI bowlers in the latest ICC rankings. Abrar Ahmed rose one spot to take third place with 642 rating points, moving ahead of New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner. Shaheen Afridi, the Pakistan ODI captain, also climbed one spot to share fourth place with Santner, both holding 621 points.
The ICC updated the rankings following the conclusion of a tri-series featuring England and Sri Lanka, as well as the ongoing ODI series between New Zealand and India.
Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan leads the bowling rankings with 760 points, followed by South Africa’s Keshav Maharaj in second with 660 points. Other Pakistani bowlers saw mixed results; Haris Rauf stayed at 24th with 540 points, and Naseem Shah remained at 55th with 472 points. Arafat Minhas dropped two places to 73rd.
In the batting rankings, Babar Azam remains Pakistan’s highest-ranked player at ninth position with 661 points. Salman Ali Agha held 13th place with 622 points. Fakhar Zaman moved up one spot to share 36th position with New Zealand’s Glenn Phillips, both with 548 points. Mohammad Rizwan, described as an out-of-favor wicketkeeper-batter, rose one place to 43rd with 532 points. Saim Ayub saw the largest improvement among Pakistani batters, jumping four places to 64th with 468 points, while Shadab Khan moved up one position to 92nd with 398 points.
India’s Shubman Gill holds the top batting spot with 822 points, followed by New Zealand’s Daryl Mitchell and India’s Virat Kohli with 794 and 781 points, respectively.
Regarding all-rounders, Salman Ali Agha and Shaheen Afridi kept their positions at 13th and 16th. Minhas rose two places to 31st with 143 points, while Naseem Shah moved up one spot to 41st. Abrar Ahmed gained one position to reach 46th with 129 points. Shadab Khan and Haris Rauf remained tied at 54th, and Saim Ayub stayed at 58th. Mohammad Nawaz rose two places to 95th with 90 points.
Azmatullah Omarzai of Afghanistan leads the all-rounders with 359 points, followed by Zimbabwe’s Sikandar Raza in second with 288 points and Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi in third with 251 points.
