Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi among top performers in WTC 2023

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The International Cricket Council (ICC) introduced the World Test Championship (WTC) back in 2019 and labeled it the "premier championship for Test cricket."

The first edition of WTC was carried out from 2019 to 2021 whereas the second one is currently still in process as it will come to a close later this year.

Last time around, the final was played between New Zealand and India where the Kiwis were victorious and took the championship trophy after registering an 8-wicket victory.

In the current edition, Australia are leading from the front with 75% PCT whereas South Africa are ranked second (71.42% PCT) and the third place belongs to India (58.33%).

In regards to the top performers, Jasprit Bumrah is currently the leading wicket-taker whereas England's Joe Root has scored the most amount of runs.

Pakistan are currently ranked fourth in the list after surrendering the opportunity to top of the table following a 1-0 Test series loss against Australia on home soil.

As far as the performances are concerned, Pakistan captain Babar Azam and premier pacer Shaheen Afridi are right up there alongside Bumrah and Root.

Shaheen Afridi has managed to pick up 37 wickets thus far having played two fewer matches than Indian pacer Bumrah. The left-arm pacer also has a better economy rate (18.02) than Bumrah (18.65) in the WTC 2023.

In addition to that, Shaheen is currently the only bowler in the top-10 to have taken a 10-wicket haul in WTC. Here is the complete list of bowlers who have dominated the proceedings:

Jasprit Bumrah tops the list for most wickets in the #WTC23 cycle. Will anyone dethrone the Indian speedster? 🤔

The WTC state of play 👉 https://t.co/HXJbNFcZmT pic.twitter.com/Sf3FB2p2gx

— ICC (@ICC) April 19, 2022

As for the run-getters, Joe Root has asserted his dominance and leads by quite a significant margin. Usman Khawaja maintained a solid form against Pakistan which helped him climb to second place.

Babar Azam is currently the third-highest run-scorer in the championship and has played 11 fewer innings than top run-scorer Root.

Furthermore, Babar also has the highest individual score (196) and has also scored the most number of half-centuries (5) compared to those sitting in the top-10. The only other player to have scored 5 half-centuries in the top-10 is South Africa's Dean Elgar.

Here's the list of highest run-scorers in WTC 2023 so far:

Joe Root comfortably leads the pack for most runs scored so far in the ICC World Test Championship 2023 cycle 🙌#WTC23 pic.twitter.com/m5ibzrMWm8

— ICC (@ICC) April 17, 2022