Haris Rauf, Salman Ali Agha rise in ICC ODI Rankings despite Pakistan’s struggles

DUBAI: Pakistan pacer Haris Rauf and vice-captain Salman Ali Agha have made notable gains in the latest ICC Men’s ODI Rankings, released on Wednesday, despite the team’s ongoing struggles in the white-ball series against New Zealand.

Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand has been anything but smooth. After a 4-1 drubbing in the T20I series, the Men in Green carried their poor form into the ODIs, losing the opener by 73 runs before conceding the series with an 84-run defeat in the second match earlier today.

However, the updated ODI rankings—calculated before today’s game—brought some individual positives.

Haris Rauf, who impressed with figures of 2-38 in the first ODI, jumped nine places to secure the 16th spot in the ICC ODI Bowling Rankings with 578 rating points.

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Meanwhile, Pakistan’s premier pacer, Shaheen Shah Afridi, who is absent from the ODI squad, slipped two places and dropped out of the top 10. He now sits at 11th with 613 points.

On the batting charts, Salman Ali Agha’s gritty 58-run knock in the series opener helped him climb six spots, placing him in joint 37th alongside New Zealand’s Tom Latham.

However, it wasn’t all good news for Pakistan’s batters. Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Rizwan lost two and one spot, respectively, and are now positioned at 20th and 21st in the rankings.

Babar Azam, though, remains Pakistan’s highest-ranked batter, holding firm at the second spot in the ICC ODI Batting Rankings.

With Pakistan already trailing 2-0 in the series, they now face the daunting task of avoiding a clean sweep in the final ODI against a dominant New Zealand side.

READ: Rizwan reflects on Pakistan’s defeat in second ODI against New Zealand