Pakistan's highly rated batter and skipper Babar Azam has broken Virat Kohli's record for the longest reign as the number one ranked T20I batter in the ICC rankings. Babar remains the number one T20I batter in the ICC T20 rankings and has already surpassed Virat Kohli's record of 1013 days in the last decade. He has accumulated 818 points and is leading the charts. Babar Azam's deputy and wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammed Rizwan is at number 2 with 794 points.

Babar Azam has been instrumental in Pakistan's recent successes in white-ball cricket. The stylish batter has accumulated 939 runs in 29 T20 matches. He played a pivotal role in taking Pakistan to the semi-finals of the previous edition of the T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Meanwhile, for Virat Kohli, it has been a contrasting tale so far. The former Indian captain has struggled to rediscover his form and put big scores across all three formats. Kohli has failed to cross the 300-run mark in the last three calendar years in T20Is.

His resignation from captaincy seems to have no effect on his batting form. As of now, Kohli is struggling to get some consistent big scores under his belt. His IPL season was also not that remarkable as per his standards.

Virat Kohli's disastrous IPL ended with only 341 runs to his name which came at a dismal average of 22.73 in 16 games. What's more, for the first time in his illustrious career, Virat Kohli was dismissed for golden ducks thrice in the same competition.

However, several Indian cricketers believe Kohli is one knock away from rediscovering his magical form.

Even his childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma backed him to regain his touch soon.

“Currently it is required for Virat to play his natural game and make a big score, which he is searching for for a long time. I have full hope that he will do that soon because it has been a long time,” Rajkumar Sharma said.

“It has not been seen often in Virat's entire career that he has such a long lean patch, in terms of triple figures, he has definitely scored runs otherwise, but his conversion rate was exceptional earlier, once he used to reach 30-35 runs, everyone used to believe that he will score big, a hundred will definitely be scored but lately that has not happened,” he added.

Virat Kohli also has the vote of confidence of India's head coach Rahul Dravid who said that the 33-year-old looked in fine form in the warm-up game against Leicestershire and is all set to end his barren run in Birmingham.

“He's not on the wrong side of his 30s. He's an incredibly fit guy, and one of the most hard-working guys I've come across. His desire, his hunger and his whole attitude, looking after himself and his preparations, even the way he batted in Leicester in those conditions, scoring the kind of 50s and 60s. He is ticking all the right boxes, he is doing what he needs to do,” Rahul Dravid said during a press conference in England.

“As a player, you go through these kinds of phases. I don't think in Virat's case, it is lack of motivation or desire. It's not about scoring three figures, even a 70 on a difficult pitch is worth appreciation. In Cape Town, he didn't convert it into a century, but it was a good score,” Rahul Dravid who has more than 13,000 Test runs to his name stated.

“Going by the standards he has set for himself, people only see hundreds as a success. But from a coach's perspective, we want contributions from him, whether it's a 50 or a 60,” Dravid pointed out.

Virat Kohli will be in action again starting this Friday as India will lock horns with England in a one-off Test at Edgbaston. A lot will be riding on Virat Kohli this time, as India will be missing two frontline players in Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul. In Rohit's absence, Virat Kohli will be among the few senior men in the team, and a lot will depend on his batting for India.

Coming back to the ICC T20 rankings, Ishan Kishan is the only Indian in the top 10, after dropping one place and currently is in 7th position. Deepak Hooda's maiden T20I ton propelled him to rise 414 spots to accomplish the 104th position. KL Rahul is 17th on the charts, while Rohit Sharma occupies the 19th rank. Ireland's highly rated batter, Harry Tector, moved up 55 places following a fantastic series against India and is placed at 65th.