Sakib on top of the world by Azad Majumder
Bangladesh’s Sakib al Hasan has climbed to the top of the ICC’s world rankings for one-day all-rounders following his consistence performance with bat and ball in the recent matches against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
Sakib began the three-match series against Zimbabwe from number three position in the all-rounders’ chart and claimed 3-11 in the first one-day match, the best ever economic bowling for Bangladesh, that helped him move into the top.
He is now well ahead of New Zealand’s Jacob Oram and England’s Andrew Flintoff, who held the second and third positions respectively. While Sakib has 380 rating points, Oram and Flintoff respectively have 368 and 366.
The top 10 all-rounders also featured Shoaib Malik, Jacques Kallis, Chris Gayle, Shahid Afridi, Yuvraj Singh, Sanath Jayasuriya and Paul Collingwood.
The ICC updates the list after every international game but normally releases the rankings after the conclusion of every series or tournament, which means Shakib will have to wait until the ongoing three-match series against Zimbabwe ends to get his formal recognition.
‘I am not sure how to celebrate the number one position. Maybe I will feel after the Zimbabwe series. At the moment winning the series is the most important thing for me,’ Sakib told New Age.
Sakib is also close to making the top-10 in the bowlers’ chart being the only the second Bangladeshi cricketer after fellow left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak. Razzak, who is currently banned from bowling for flawed action, was in number eight position last year.
Sakib has now moved to number 12 position and a spectacular performance in the final one-day match today can easily take him to the top 10. Sakib is also the highest-ranked one-day batsman for Bangladesh at 34th position.
