Bangladesh captain Sakib al Hasan finally lost his number one place in the ICC rankings for one-day all-rounders after a string of poor performances in the World Cup and the one-day series against Australia.
Australia’s Shane Watson displaced Sakib after Wednesday’s third and final one-dayer, ending his long reign of 115 weeks and four days as top one-day all-rounder.
Sakib climbed to the top on January 23 in 2009 and retained his position with consistent performance before his form dipped in the World Cup.
A total of 351 ODIs were played since Sakib rose to the top but no-one from any other side were a match for Sakib over the period.
Watson came close to Sakib during the World Cup and finally toppled him, making 294 runs along with three wickets in the three-match series against Bangladesh. His feat included a record 15 sixes in his 185 not out in the second one-dayer.
Sakib scored only 69 runs in the series and claimed just one wicket and as a consequence fell 44 rating points behind Watson in the latest ICC ranking released on Thursday.
His poor performance also took a toll on his bowling ranking. Sakib was ranked number two in the bowling charts before the World Cup. But he did not do any justice to this billing in the World Cup despite playing all the matches on home soil and was thrown out of top 10 after the end of the tournament.
He began the Australia series in 12th place and after just one wicket in three matches, averaging 117, took him further three places down to 15.
Sakib’s ranking as a batsman also worsened with him now slipping to 26th place.
Courtesy of New Age
