Pakistan and Babar Azam move to the top of world rankings

Since Azam burst onto the scene in 2015 he has been a constant thorn in opposition sides through all formats. His exploits at the top of the order in T20 cricket have gained him plenty of recognition, but he has been a top performer throughout formats.

The right-handed batsman has been in stunning form in ODI cricket recently. He has an overall average of 59.85 at a strike rate of just below 90 over 99 matches. His 100th match will be the fifth ODI against New Zealand in the current series.

With this being an ODI World Cup year, Babar Azam could not have timed his best form any better. 

Over his last 17 innings, Azam has scored 50+ runs 14 times, one of the three times he didn’t score 50 he was out on 49. He has scored five centuries in that 17-match run, four of which came in a five-match run against England, Australia, and the West Indies.

To top it all off, Azam reached 5000 ODI runs faster than any batsman in history. While much can still happen before the World Cup later this year, the Pakistan captain has put himself and his team in a very strong position to claim their first title since their 1992 triumph. 

Not only has Babar Azam taken the lead in the ODI batting standings, Pakistan have for the first time in their history taken the world No.1 spot on the ODI rankings. 

That feat has been well deserved, too. Over their last 15 ODI games, Pakistan have won 13 and lost just two. Both defeats came at home to New Zealand in January this year.

Currently Pakistan lead New Zealand 4-0 in an ODI series on home soil with one match left to play. The one negative for Pakistan is that all but three of these 15 matches have taken place on home soil. And the three away games were in the Netherlands.

That said, the World Cup will be played in India, a sub-continent country where conditions will be similar to home. Their build-up to the World Cup could not have been much better but maintaining that form over the coming months will be key.

While Pakistan are unlikely to go into the showpiece event as favourites, they will certainly be among the top competitors. 

Pakistan will hope that they can repeat the heroics of the 1992 side that claimed the trophy in Australia and New Zealand. They have reached one final since (1999) where they were thrashed by the Aussies.

On that occasion it was young Wasim Akram who turned out to be the hero along with stalwarts such as Imran Khan. 

Babar Azam is certainly the key man to Pakistan’s success, but they have a very good squad overall. They have a very strong bowling unit while they have shown the ability to chase down big scores, even when Azam has failed.

Pakistan are currently priced at 8.00 to win the ODI World Cup later this year with bet365