Haris, Salman rise in ICC ODI Rankings

LAHORE: Pakistan cricketers Haris Rauf and Salman Ali Agha have moved up in the latest ICC Men’s ODI Rankings despite their team’s poor performance in New Zealand. The rankings update, released on Wednesday, offers some personal success amid the team’s ongoing series defeats.

Pakistan has had a difficult tour of New Zealand. They lost the T20I series 4-1 and have now lost the ODI series as well, suffering defeats in the first two matches. They lost the first ODI by 73 runs and the second by 84 runs, with the ranking changes calculated before today’s second match.

Fast bowler Haris Rauf has made significant progress in the bowling rankings. His impressive performance of 2-38 in the first ODI helped him jump nine places to reach 16th position with 578 rating points.

In contrast, Pakistan’s star bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi, who is not playing in the current ODI series, has dropped two places. He is now ranked 11th with 613 points, falling out of the top 10.

Vice-captain Salman Ali Agha has also improved his position in the batting rankings. His fighting innings of 58 runs in the first ODI has helped him climb six spots to joint 37th place, where he is now tied with New Zealand’s Tom Latham.

Not all Pakistani batters saw improvements, however. Fakhar Zaman dropped two places to 20th position, while Mohammad Rizwan fell one spot to 21st in the latest rankings.

Babar Azam continues to be Pakistan’s highest-ranked batter, maintaining his position at number two in the ICC ODI Batting Rankings.

Pakistan now faces the challenge of preventing a clean sweep as they prepare for the final ODI against New Zealand. With the series already decided at 2-0 in favor of the hosts, Pakistan will be playing for pride in the remaining match.