Babar Azam goes below Virat Kohli in latest ICC Test rankings after his twin failures vs Bangladesh

Former Pakistan Test skipper Babar Azam has lost six places to drop to ninth position in the latest ICC Test rankings for batsmen. He returned with scores of 0 and 22 in the first Test of the two-match Test series against Bangladesh and that has affected his ranking severely. For the first time in the last few years, Babar is not in the top five rankings across all formats.

In fact, without playing a single Test match since January 2024, Virat Kohli has gone above him in the rankings. The former India captain is at the eighth position with 737 rating points while Babar is just three points below him at the ninth place. Things could've been worse for the latter if Liton Das had held the catch when he was on duck in the second innings of the Test match too. In that case, Babar would've lost his place in the top 10 entirely.

The second Test between Pakistan and Bangladesh is set to be played from August 30 in Rawalpindi and Babar Azam will have a chance to regain his place in the top five again in the next week. Meanwhile, Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan put up a brilliant show in the Test match scoring 171* and 51 and has jumped seven places. He is jointly at the 10th place alongside Australia's Usman Khawaja with with 728 rating points.

Joe Root continues to be on top of the rankings for the batters following his scores of 42 and 62* in the first Test against Sri Lanka. With 881 rating points, he is 22 points ahead of the second-placed Kane Williamson. England batter Harry Brook is at fourth place after his impressive show against Sri Lanka.

Latest ICC Test rankings for batsmen