Babar Azam becomes No. 1 ranked ODI batsman, reveals how Virat Kohli's advice helped him

In the latest rankings released by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday, Pakistan cricket team captain Babar Azam has become the number one ODI batsman of the world. Babar Azam dethroned India's skipper Virat Kohli, who was the number one ODI batsman in the ICC ODI rankings for the past 41 months. In 'special edition of PCB Podcast' conducted by his Pakistan's opener Imam-ul-Haq, Babar revealed that how Virat Kohli's advice helped him a lot to improve his performance on the field. 

Babar Azam revealed that in the beginning he did not pay much importance to the net session and practiced in the nets casually. However, he overcame this and it was none other than Virat Kohli who helped him in this. Babar said, "On this, I talked to Virat Kohli once I asked him about the nets. Then it was him who told me that the way you play in the nets, what you think in the nets only those things you do in the nets. If you playing careless shots in the nets and getting out and you will play like that in the nets. Then that helped me a lot."   

On being asked how he overcame his struggle to score against the Kiwis in New Zealand as he was struggling a lot, Babar Azam said, "You get doubts every time, even if you perform well like you think the way I wanted to play I could not. To overcome I tried to talk to big players- what they think, what they do, what is their mindset, what kind of practice they do. If they cannot perform then how they come out of that. I talk to Inzi Bhai (Inzamam-ul-Haq) and Yusuf Bhai (Mohamma Yousuf). Therefore I ask them every time how to play in those conditions. Therefore I try to apply those during the match, but if the advice does not suit you it is not necessary to follow that advice."

Babar Azam- fourth Pakistan batsman to attain the top ranking

Babar's match-winning 82-ball 94 runs in the third ODI against South Africa helped him gain 13 rating points to reach a career-best 865 points. Virat Kohli has been on top ever since he surpassed the South African ace batsman AB de Villiers in October 2017. After Babar Azam's knock in the third ODI against South Africa, he gained eight more points than Virat Kohli to become just the fourth Pakistan batsman to attain the top ranking after Zaheer Abbas (1983-84), Javed Miandad (1988-89), and Mohammad Yousuf (2003).

(Image Credits:  PTI/AP)