Pakistan’s men’s cricket team clean swept the visiting West Indian team in a three-match ODI series on their home soil. With the dominating series win, Babar Azam’s side jumped ahead of their arch-rivals, India in the international ODI rankings. Pakistan has occupied the fourth spot in the rankings while India sits in the fifth place.
Before the series started Pakistan was the fifth team in the rankings with a rating of 102 points. After their win against West Indies, they now have 106 points under their belt and are ahead of India by a single rating point.
Talking about the rankings, New Zealand occupies the top spot in the list with a rating of 125 and 1505 points from 12 matches. England is just below the Kiwis with a 124 rating and 2353 points from 19 matches. The third team on the list is South Africa with a rating of 107, while Australia is currently stationed at 6 with a 99 rating.
Pakistan has been dominating white-ball cricket for the last couple of years. Except for a series loss against England away from home they have been displaying excellent performances in all corners.
Their few recent wins include 2-1 wins over Zimbabwe and South Africa. This was followed by a win against Australia on home soil in a historic series, where the visitors toured the nation for the first time after 1998.
Babar Azam has been a true leader of the team. He has been setting examples for his teammates with his brilliant batting antics. In the series against West Indies, he scored three consecutive centuries. With this, he achieved the rare feat of doing this twice in international cricket having achieved it previously in 2016.
India and Pakistan will be facing off against each other in the 20-20 World Cup scheduled later this year in Australia. Although it will be a different format, this might act as a morale boost for Pakistan, having taken over their arch-rivals. But India will also be rearing to have a go at Pakistan and avenge their defeat in the last edition of the tournament.
