Marnus Labuschagne and Babar Azam are placed at the top of the table in the latest update to the ICC rankings for batters in Tests and T20Is, respectively. The two batters have been rewarded for their great recent performances, with Labuschagne continuing his ascent in Tests and Babar dominating the bowling in the T20 World Cup.
While Labuschagne has earned the top spot in rankings for the very first time, Babar has returned to the numero uno slot in the T20Is after slipping below a week before.
Labuschagne has been absolutely brilliant for Australia since becoming Test cricket’s first concussion substitute for Steve Smith in the second innings of the Lord’s 2019 Ashes fixture. After a slow start, Labuschagne came to grips with the Test game via that innings and has since made 1,903 runs at 73.19 with six hundreds and 11 half-centuries.
Labuschagne is Australia’s highest-scoring Test run-getter and their best averaging player in the format since August 2019. He was the top scorer of the inaugural World Test Championship cycle with 1,675 runs from 13 Tests at an average of 72.82.
The Queenslander has earned his career-highest rating points (912) in the latest ICC ranking update after scoring a terrific hundred in the D/N Test against England, pushing Australia to a 2-0 lead in the home Ashes series.
Babar, on his part, had a brief but notable slip from the No.1 spot in T20I rankings after his twin failures in the first two T20Is of the home series against West Indies. But in the third, he struck a 53-ball 79 in Pakistan’s win to not only steer his team to a 3-0 series victory but also to regain his top spot with 805 rating points (levelled with England’s Dawid Malan).
Babar and Malan are followed by Mohammad Rizwan (798 rating points), Aiden Markram (796) and KL Rahul (729) at third, fourth and fifth place in the T20I batters’ rankings, respectively.
Babar is also the highest-ranked ODI batter with 873 rating points. In Tests, Labuschagne stands above Joe Root (897), Steve Smith (884), Kane Williamson (879) and Rohit Sharma (797).
