Babar Azam becomes number one T20I batsman in the world for the third time

Islambad : Fresh from winning the man-of-the-series award in the 3-0 clean sweep of Australia, frontline Pakistan batsman Babar Azam has also become the top-ranked T20I batsman in the world for the third time.

Azam scored a total of 163 runs in the three-match series against the Aussies, which saw him overtake Australian captain Aaron Finch in the latest rankings released today.

The right-handed opener now has 844 points — five more than the second-placed Finch (839) and 32 more than India’s Lokesh Rahul (812).

Fakhar Zaman, Azam’s fellow opener, sits in the fifth spot on the same list.

In January this year, Azam topped the ICC’s T20I ranking for the first time after helping Pakistan claim a 2-1 series victory against New Zealand in New Zealand. He had scored 109 runs in those trio of outings.

In April, he soured to the summit once again after amassing 165 runs in the 3-0 whitewash of the West Indies at home.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)