Dubai, 13 May 20083-0 victory over New Zealand will see Vaughan’s side jump two places past India and SA; opportunities for Sidebottom, Pietersen, Martin and Vettori in player rankings
England can move to second place in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship table if it beats New Zealand 3-0 in the upcoming series that gets underway at Lord’s on Thursday.
Currently in fourth position, Michael Vaughan’s team can overtake South Africa and India if it sweeps past the Black Caps in the three-match series. England , which fell from second place following its 1-0 series defeat to Sri Lanka late last year, now has the opportunity to make amends.
With just five ratings points separating India in second position and Sri Lanka in fifth, the table is very congested but with England being the only team of that foursome in action before July, the opportunity is there for it to make its mark.
With seven Test matches scheduled for England during this Northern Hemisphere summer the home side could in theory move to within 15 ratings points of leader Australia from the current gap of 33 points if results go its way.
However, New Zealand has opportunities of its own in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship. Currently in seventh position, Daniel Vettori’s men will move ahead of Pakistan into sixth place if it wins the series. And if it manages to win all three Tests, it will break the 100-point mark and move it to within three of England , which in turn would drop to fifth.
As ever, the England v New Zealand series presents opportunities for individuals to progress up the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings. England has four squad members in the top 20 of the batting rankings so Kevin Pietersen (10th place), Alistair Cook (16th), Ian Bell (joint-17th) and Paul Collingwood (20th) are all nicely placed to make further moves up the ladder.
On the bowling front, if Ryan Sidebottom can continue his remarkable run of form he should be able to get up as high as eighth position from his current spot in 10th place. Matthew Hoggard (12th) and Monty Panesar (16th) can also improve while New Zealand ’s Chris Martin in 18th place will be doing his best to thwart the England batsmen.
The Kiwi captain Vettori is sitting just outside the top 20 bowlers in 23rd position and is also New Zealand ’s highest ranked batsman in 30th place. He can also close the gap on South Africa ’s Jacques Kallis at the top of the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders.
England v New Zealand Test series
15-19 May – First Test, Lord’s, London
23-27 May – Second Test, Manchester
5-9 Jun – Third Test, Nottingham
Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship (as of 13 May)
Rank Teams Rating
1 Australia 141
2 India 111
3 South Africa 109
4 England 108
5 Sri Lanka 106
6 Pakistan 94
7 New Zealand 91
8 West Indies 77
9 Bangladesh 1
Note: Zimbabwe has a rating of 12 but has not played sufficient number of Test matches over the new rating period to be included on the main table.
Reliance Mobile ICC Test Rankings (as of 13 May)
Batsmen
Rank Player Team Points Ave HS Rating
1 Mike Hussey Aus 912*! 78.14 912 v Ind at Adelaide 2008
2 Ricky Ponting Aus 899 58.53 942 v Eng at Adelaide 2006
3 K.C.Sangakkara SL 893 55.19 938 v Eng at Kandy 2007
4 Mohd Yousuf Pak 880 55.49 933 v WI at Karachi 2006
5 Jacques Kallis SA 877 57.14 935 v NZ at Centurion 2007
6 Matthew Hayden Aus 860 53.51 935 v Eng at Brisbane 2002
7= S.Chanderpaul WI 810 47.24 838 v SA at Cape Town 2008
M.Jayawardena SL 810 51.93 844 v WI at Guyana 2008
9 Yunus Khan Pak 799 49.14 856 v Eng at Leeds 2006
10 Kevin Pietersen Eng 784 49.74 909 v WI at Leeds 2007
11 Michael Clarke Aus 744 46.45 761 v Ind at Melbourne 2007
12 Graeme Smith SA 712 48.57 756 v NZ at Wellington 2004
13 S.R.Tendulkar Ind 704 55.31 898 v Zim at Nagpur 2002
14 Rahul Dravid Ind 701 54.88 892 v Pak at Kolkata 2005
15 Virender Sehwag Ind 681 51.75 854 v SA at Kolkata 2004
16 Alastair Cook Eng 679 43.46 711 v SL at Galle 2007
17= Sourav Ganguly Ind 674 42.71 713 v Aus at Adelaide 1999
Ian Bell Eng 674 43.15 684 v SL at Kandy 2007
19 VVS Laxman Ind 672 43.82 753 v Aus at Sydney 2004
20 P.D.Collingwood Eng 668 42.54 730 v Aus at Adelaide 2006
Bowlers
Rank Player Team Points Ave HS Rating
1 M.Muralidaran SL 897 21.95 920 v Ban at Kandy 2007
2 Dale Steyn SA 892 21.60 897 v Ind at Ahmedabad 2008
3 Stuart Clark Aus 829* 21.88 843 v Ind at Perth 2008
4 Brett Lee Aus 795 ! 29.97 795 v Ind at Adelaide 2008
5 Makhaya Ntini SA 777 27.85 863 v Ind at Durban 2006
6 Chaminda Vaas SL 709 29.09 800 v Ind at Chennai 2005
7 Anil Kumble Ind 708 29.06 859 v SL at Bangalore 1994
8 Shane Bond NZ 688* 22.39 778 v WI at Auckland 2006
9 Shoaib Akhtar Pak 684 25.69 855 v NZ at Wellington 2003
10 Ryan Sidebottom Eng 665*! 26.60 665 v NZ at Napier 2008
11 Corey Collymore WI 640* 32.30 700 v Eng at Lord's 2007
12 Matthew Hoggard Eng 637 30.50 795 v SL at Birmingham 2006
13 Andrew Flintoff Eng 621 32.02 810 v Pak at Multan 2005
14= Zaheer Khan Ind 619 33.60 689 v Pak at Delhi 2007
Mohammad Asif Pak 619* 23.13 710 v SA at Cape Town 2007
16 Monty Panesar Eng 617* 32.45 721 v WI at Chester-le-St 2007
17 Danish Kaneria Pak 614 33.90 723 v Eng at Multan 2005
18 Chris Martin NZ 609 32.66 643 v Eng at Lord's 2004
19 Harbhajan Singh Ind 608 31.03 765 v NZ at Wellington 2002
20 James Franklin NZ 594* 28.19 679 v SL at Christchurch 2006
All-rounders
Rank Player Team Points HS Rating
1 Jacques Kallis SA 495 616 v Pak at Durban 2002
2 Daniel Vettori NZ 340 359 v Eng at Hamilton 2008
3 Andrew Flintoff Eng 320 501 v Pak at Multan 2005
4 Chaminda Vaas SL 294 300 v WI at Guyana 2008
5 Irfan Pathan Ind 262 317 v Eng at Mohali 2006
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