Pakistan has achieved the number one position in the ICC ODI rankings for the first time since the introduction of ICC’s official team raking system in 2005 after a comfortable win in the fourth ODI against New Zealand in Karachi on Friday.
Pakistan were fifth on the ODI rankings before the five-match series started with a rating of 106 but jumped to the first position after winning four con-secutive games against New Zealand who were in 2nd place before the series started in Rawalpindi last month.
Babar’s men are now on top of the ODI teams’ chart with 113.483 rating points, followed by Aus-tralia with 113.286 and India with 112.638. They’ll further cement their place if they win the 5th ODI and complete the series clean sweep.
The ICC official ODI ranking system was intro-duced in 2005 and since then, Pakistan’s previous best-ever was 3rd position.
The method of ICC ranking was developed by renowned statistician David Kendix. The formula was also applied retrospectively to know the teams’ position before the ranking was officially launched.
According to the retrospective application of Kendix’s formula in historical position, Pakistan was last on top of ODI rankings in August 1991. How-ever, that historical ranking stands no official status.
However, to retain their top spot, Pakistan need to guarantee a decisive victory in the fifth and final ODI on Sunday, 7 May. A loss in the fifth ODI will bring them back to No.3 and Australia will reclaim their No.1 spot in the rankings. Pakistan will also stay on top of the ICC ODI rankings on the off chance that the fifth match is a no-result.
Babar Azam On Becoming Number 1 ODI Team “Team’s efforts and the work from the support staff has helped us to be number 1, Credit to the boys for putting in the effort in tough times. The journey has been good. And has been a memorable one. Has been filled with support, sacrifices, and struggle so far,” Babar Azam said in the post-match presentation.
“The wicket played well today. We planned to build partnerships. Me and Agha built a partnership and decided to take it deep. We thought 310 was possible. Shaheen got us beyond expectations. As a team, we had decided we would test our bench strength. We need to prepare for future games and events. We needed to be sure of our best 15 or 16 players,” he added.—Agencies
