Doing so, he dethroned Imam ul Haq from the second spot, who slipped two places to the fifth spot.

The left-hander is in red-hot form with the bat as he scored back-to-back centuries in both ODIs of the series played in Rawalpindi.

The left-hander scored 117 in the series opener in Rawalpindi and then backed it up with a magnificent 180 not out in the second match at the same venue.

Fakhar rises to a career-best rating of 784 rating points and is now the closest challenger to his skipper despite trailing by 103 rating points.

It means Pakistan now have three players in the top five on the latest ODI batting charts ahead of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup later this year, with Imam-ul-Haq remaining in fifth place behind his two teammates and South Africa’s Rassie van der Dussen and India’s Shubman Gill.