Babar Azam drops below Virat Kohli in Test Rankings: Stats
What's the story
Babar Azam, the former captain of Pakistan's Test cricket team, has experienced a significant drop in his position in the latest ICC Test Rankings for Batters.
His disappointing performance against Bangladesh in the first match of a two-Test series, where he scored just 0 and 22 runs, has led to this decline.
This marks a notable shift as Babar is now ranked below India's Virat Kohli for the first time in several years.
Ranking decline
Babar drops to ninth position
Azam's poor performance in the ongoing Test series against Bangladesh has resulted in a six-place drop, pushing him down to the ninth position in the ICC Test Rankings.
This is a significant change as Babar has consistently maintained a top five ranking across all formats for several years.
His current rating stands at 734 points, just three points behind Kohli who occupies the eighth spot with 737 points.
Kohli's rise
Kohli surpasses Azam despite not playing since January
Interestingly, Kohli has managed to surpass Babar in the rankings despite not having played a single Test match since January 2024.
He is placed 8th 737 rating points, while Pakistan star Babar is just three points behind him at ninth place.
Kohli scored 46 and 12 in his last Test match versus South Africa in January 2024.
Duo
Key numbers for the two batters
Babar has gone 14 innings without a Test century. His last ton came against New Zealand in December 2022.
Since then the star batter's Test scores read 14, 24, 27, 13, 24, 39, 21, 14, 1, 41, 26, 23, 0 and 22.
Babar's Test average has fallen down to 45.05. He owns 3,920 runs in Tests.
In 113 matches, Kohli has amassed 8,848 runs at 49.15.
Kohli has clobbered two tons and a fifty in his last 14 Test innings.