A recap of a phenomenal week for Pakistani cricket

• Babar Azam reaches the top of ICC's ODI rankings table.
• Pakistan records second T20I series win in South Africa.
• Mohammad Rizwan included in Wisden's 2021 list of “cricketers of the year”.

The past week has been a tremendous one for Pakistan cricket with the team registering several records and achieving numerous feats, bringing up the morale of the Men In Green ahead of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

Series win

Pakistan capped the South African tour with a T20I series win yesterday, after having clinched the ODI series earlier this month. This was the second T20I series victory in South Africa by the Green Shirts.

Babar Azam's ODI ranking

In a huge development, Pakistan captain Babar Azam toppled his Indian counterpart Virat Kohli to become the world's top-ranked ODI batsman.

Rizwan's induction in Wisden's list

Pakistan’s wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan was included in Wisden's 2021 list of “cricketers of the year” for his performance during the English season last year.

Rizwan was named among Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley, Jason Holder and Darren Stevens who have been named Wisden Cricketers of the Year in the 2021 edition of the Wisden Almanack.

Fakhar, Shaheen's rankings

Fakhar Zaman and Shaheen Shah Afridi also reached their career-best position in the ICC's ODI rankings.

Opener Fakhar Zaman is now among the top 10 ODI batsmen of the world and fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi is on the verge of entering the top ten for bowlers.

Mohammad Abbas' hat-trick

Seamer Mohammad Abbas in just 13 balls claimed five wickets — including a hat-trick — to destroy Middlesex in his second match for Hampshire — an English county team.

Best run chase

In defeating South Africa during the third T20I, Pakistan marked their best run chase — 204 for the loss of a wicket.

Highest first-wicket partnership 

During the same match, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan hit 197 runs for the first wicket which is Pakistan’s highest first-wicket partnership in the shortest format of the game.

It was also the highest partnership for any wicket in T20I run chases by any team.

Highest individual total by Pakistani batsman 

Babar Azam’s inning, in the same match, of 122 was the highest individual total by a Pakistani batsman in T20Is after Ahmed Shahzad, who had scored 111.