• Babar Azam is third in the ICC’s newest Test batting rankings.
• Australia’s Steve Smith passed Babar to move into second place.
• Abrar Ahmed of Pakistan has moved up three spots in the rankings.

Babar Azam fell to third in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) current Test batters’ rankings on Wednesday.

After the home series against England, Babar was moved up to his best spot in his career. But because of how he’s been playing in the ongoing series against New Zealand, he’s now in third place instead of second.

In the first innings of the first Test against New Zealand at the National Bank Cricket Arena in Karachi, the batter with a lot of hits got 161 runs.

But in the second inning of that game, he could only score 14 runs.

Also, Babar had a bad run of luck in the first innings of the second Test at the same place. He was sent back to the pavilion after scoring only 24 runs because he got confused with Imam-ul-Haq.

In the meantime, Australia’s Steve Smith passed Babar to move into second place.

The 28-year-old moved up in the latest ICC Test rankings because he scored 348 runs against England in three home Tests.

After the home Test series against England, in which he scored the third-most runs, Babar moved up to the second spot in the ICC Test batters’ rankings, which was his best ever.

Abdulah Shafique, who bats first for Pakistan and has been having a hard time since the first Test against England, also fell 11 places and is now in 37th place.

Abrar Ahmed of Pakistan has moved up three spots in the rankings and is now in 60th place.

On the other hand, Australia’s star batter Marnus Labuschagne stayed at the top of the rankings for batters, while his countryman and captain Pat Cummins stayed at the top of the rankings for bowlers.

[embedpost slug=”pak-vs-nz-babar-azam-left-in-first-over-of-day-2/”]