Pakistan climb to top spot in ICC ODI ranking

KARACHI: Pakistan has achieved the number one position in the ICC ODI rankings for the first time since the introduction of ICC’s official team raking system in 2005 after a comfortable win in the fourth ODI against New Zealand in Karachi on Friday.

Pakistan were fifth on the ODI rankings before the five-match series started with a rating of 106 but jumped to the first position after winning four consecutive games against New Zealand who were in 2nd place before the series started in Rawalpindi last month.

Babar’s men are now on top of the ODI teams’ chart with 113.483 rating points, followed by Australia with 113.286 and India with 112.638. They’ll further cement their place if they win the 5th ODI and complete the series clean sweep.

The ICC official ODI ranking system was introduced in 2005 and since then, Pakistan’s previous best-ever was 3rd position.

The method of ICC ranking was developed by renowned statistician David Kendix. The formula was also applied retrospectively to know the teams’ position before the ranking was officially launched.

According to the retrospective application of Kendix’s formula in historical position, Pakistan was last on top of ODI rankings in August 1991. However, that historical ranking stands no official status.