Top ranked batters in Men's ODI rankings at the end of calendar years in the 21st century listed

Pakistan’s white-ball skipper, Babar Azam has made it to the top of the ICC ODI rankings for the best batter in the world for the third consecutive time. Although Pakistan got knocked out of the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 in the group stages itself, Babar scored over 300 runs in 9 matches for his side. 

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Babar is the only Pakistani cricketer in the 21st century to reach the pinnacle of Men’s ODI batting, let alone achieving the feat three consecutive times. 

Apart from Babar, other prominent batters to have dominated the list in the 21st century are India's talisman Virat Kohli and Mr. 360 himself, South African batter AB de Villers. Previous to de Villers, Hashim Amla was the world’s best ODI batsman for quite some time. 

The two South Africans dominated the top ODI batter list for seven years straight between 2010 and 2017, quite an extraordinary feat indeed. 

In today’s story with The Sporting News, we take a look at the list of players at the top of the Men’s ODI rankings in each year of the 21st century. 

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Best ODI batsman in every calendar year in the 21st century

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