Pakistan's pace spearhead Shaheen Shah Afridi has become the new world No. one bowler in ODIs after claiming 3/23 against Bangladesh in the 31st match of the ongoing World Cup at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The left-arm seamer has surged past Australia's Josh Hazlewood to claim the top spot. Shaheen, 23, now has a total of 673 ratings, ten more than Hazlewood (663).
Shaheen has achieved the feat for the first time in his international career and he has now joined hands with skipper Babar Azam who is the No. 1 batter in the ICC ODI player rankings.
The left-arm seamer has done fairly well in the ongoing showpiece event in India. He has already bagged 16 wickets at an astounding average of 19.06 and has been pretty economical, conceding just 5.22 runs per over.
Shaheen's spell was the key for Pakistan in the tie against Bangladesh. It helped the Babar Azam-led side to restrict the Bangla Tigers to just 204 runs in 45.1 overs on a beautiful batting deck.
The Pakistan batters made full use of the momentum provided by their bowlers and went hammer and tongs to demolish Bangladesh's bowling attack. Fakhar Zaman, who was awarded the Player of the Match (POTM) for his quick-fire knock of 81 off just 74 balls kept the asking rate in control throughout the chase and it resulted in an easy chase for the 1992 World Cup winners as they won by seven wickets.
Meanwhile, Babar Azam missed out on an opportunity to remain unbeaten and get Pakistan over the line himself. Babar holed out at long-on while playing an aerial shot and could just manage to score nine runs. Though he is currently the No. 1 ranked ODI batter, the gulf between him and India's Shubman Gill has been reduced to just two rating points.
Babar has 818 ratings and Shubman has aggregated 816 ratings already and might surpass him soon in the forthcoming games.
