{"id":72554,"date":"2026-03-05T16:24:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T11:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinaurdu.com\/eng\/?p=72554"},"modified":"2026-03-05T16:24:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T11:24:27","slug":"pakistani-opener-challenges-abhishek-sharma-for-no-1-position","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaurdu.com\/eng\/?p=72554","title":{"rendered":"Pakistani opener challenges Abhishek Sharma for No.1 position"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pakistan opener Sahibzada Farhan has made significant gains in the latest Twenty20 rankings following impressive performances in the T20 World Cup, putting pressure on India\u2019s top-ranked batter Abhishek Sharma.<\/p>\n<p>According to the rankings update, Sahibzada Farhan has moved to the second position with 383 runs, narrowing the gap with the top spot to just 26 points. His century against Sri Lanka in Pallekele was a key highlight of his campaign.<\/p>\n<p>In the batting rankings, Farhan overtook England\u2019s Phil Salt, who slipped to third place. India\u2019s Ishan Kishan is now ranked fourth, while his compatriot Tilak Varma stands at sixth. South Africa\u2019s Dewald Brevis secured the eighth position.<\/p>\n<p>Zimbabwe\u2019s Brian Bennett climbed six places to reach 11th, while South Africa\u2019s Ryan Rickelton (13th) and Aiden Markram (16th) also improved their standings.<\/p>\n<p>In the bowling category, India\u2019s spinner Varun Chakravarthy retained the top position, although his lead has reduced to 18 points.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan spinner Abrar Ahmed achieved a strong rise to secure the third position. India\u2019s Jasprit Bumrah is ranked seventh, and Arshdeep Singh stands at 13th. England\u2019s Liam Dawson moved up to 14th, while South Africa\u2019s Lungi Ngidi remains among the top 20.<\/p>\n<p>In the all-rounder rankings, Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza maintained his dominance at the top. India\u2019s Hardik Pandya moved ahead to claim second place, pushing Pakistan\u2019s all-rounder to third.<\/p>\n<p>West Indies veteran Jason Holder gained eight spots to reach 11th position in the latest update.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pakistan opener Sahibzada Farhan has made significant gains in the latest Twenty20 rankings following impressive performances in the T20 World Cup, putting pressure on India\u2019s top-ranked batter Abhishek Sharma. According to the rankings update, Sahibzada Farhan has moved to the second position with 383 runs, narrowing the gap with the top spot to just 26 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":72555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,136],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[213],"class_list":{"0":"post-72554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest","8":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pakistani opener challenges Abhishek Sharma for No.1 position<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chinaurdu.com\/eng\/?p=72554\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pakistani opener challenges Abhishek Sharma for No.1 position\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pakistan opener Sahibzada Farhan has made significant gains in the latest Twenty20 rankings following impressive performances in the T20 World Cup, putting pressure on India\u2019s top-ranked batter Abhishek Sharma. According to the rankings update, Sahibzada Farhan has moved to the second position with 383 runs, narrowing the gap with the top spot to just 26 [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/chinaurdu.com\/eng\/?p=72554\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Urdu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-05T11:24:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/chinaurdu.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/sahibzada-farhan-Abhishek-Sharma.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"742\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"486\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"LORD\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"LORD\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" 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