India will be looking to regain second place in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship when its goes head to head with Sri Lanka in a three-Test series starting in Colombo from Wednesday.
India is currently ranked third behind Australia and South Africa while Sri Lanka is another couple of places back, behind fourth-placed England .
But that line-up could all change depending how the India – Sri Lanka and England – South Africa series pan out.
These are the potential scenarios:
· To regain second place in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship table, India needs to sweep the series and hope South Africa wins its series in England 2-1. That will leave India on 118 and South Africa on 116.
· If India wins 2-1 and South Africa also wins by the same margin, Anil Kumble’s side will reduce the gap with the Proteas to just one ratings point, 116 to 115.
· A shared series in Sri Lanka while South Africa wins its series in England 2-1 will mean India will have 112 ratings points, compared to South Africa’s 116. It will also mean Sri Lanka swaps places with Michael Vaughan’s side.
· If Sri Lanka wins its series 2-0 and South Africa beats England 2-1, Sri Lanka (110) will leapfrog both India (108) and England (104) into third place.
· Identical 3-0 wins for Sri Lanka and South Africa will leave India on 106 and England on 102 while Sri Lanka (112) will move to third and South Africa (119) will be in second place.
· If Sri Lanka beats India 2-1, it will rise to 108 ratings points while India will drop to 109 points
In the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen, Sri Lanka ’s Kumar Sangakkara is on top of the chart. He will be aiming to return to the 900-point mark he first achieved last year against England in Kandy .
In ranking terms, 900 points marks out a player as truly great. Only 24 players have achieved that tally in the 131 years of Tests.
Sangakkara is only just ahead of second-placed Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies , which means a disappointing series could see him lose the top position he has held since March this year.
Mahela Jayawardena is the other batsman from either side to figure in the top 10 list. He currently sits in ninth position with eighth-placed Australia ’s Matthew Hayden firmly in his sights.
No India batsman figures in the top 10 list but there are five of them inside the top 20 – Sachin Tendulkar (13th), Rahul Dravid (15th), Virender Sehwag (18th), Sourav Ganguly (19th) and VVS Laxman (20th).
Sri Lanka ’s iconic spinner Muttiah Muralidaran leads the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers. The 36-year-old from Kandy is Test cricket’s highest wicket-taker with 735 victims and has been occupying the top spot since February 2006.
Chaminda Vaas, in seventh place, is the other Sri Lanka bowler in the top 10 while India captain Anil Kumble is just behind Vaas, in eighth position.
Zaheer Khan (14th) and Harbhajan Singh (18th) have excellent opportunities to make upward moves. Also eyeing improvements in their currently positions are R.P Singh (40th), Munaf Patel (47th) and Ishant Sharma (53rd).
In the all-rounder listing, Jacques Kallis of South Africa remains top, clear of Daniel Vettori of New Zealand , with Vaas in fifth spot and Kumble and Sehwag in 10th and 11th positions respectively.
Series schedule:
23-27 July – first Test, SSC, Colombo
31 July-4 August – second Test, Galle
8-12 August – third Test, RPS, Colombo
LG ICC Test Championship (as of 21 July, before the start of Sri Lanka – India series)
Rank Team Rating
1 Australia 138
2 South Africa 115
3 India 113
4 England 106
5 Sri Lanka 103
6 Pakistan 100
7 New Zealand 83
8 West Indies 81
9 Bangladesh 0
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 21 July and prior to the conclusion of England – South Africa Test being played in Headingley, Leeds )
Batsmen
Rank Player Team Points Avge HS Rating
1 K.C.Sangakkara SL 893 55.19 938 v Eng at Kandy 2007
2 S.Chanderpaul WI 890! 49.08 890 v Aus at Bridgetown 2008
3 Mike Hussey Aus 882 68.38 921 v WI at Kingston 2008
4= Ricky Ponting Aus 880 58.37 942 v Eng at Adelaide 2006
Mohd Yousuf Pak 880 55.49 933 v WI at Karachi 2006
6 Jacques Kallis SA 844 56.59 935 v NZ at Centurion 2007
7 Kevin Pietersen Eng 837 51.00 909 v WI at Headingley 2007
8 Matthew Hayden Aus 834 53.51 935 v Eng at Brisbane 2002
9 M.Jayawardena SL 810 51.93 844 v WI at Guyana 2008
10 Yunus Khan Pak 799 49.14 856 v Eng at Headingley 2006
11 Michael Clarke Aus 723 47.06 761 v Ind at Melbourne 2007
12 Graeme Smith SA 714 48.73 756 v NZ at Wellington 2004
13= Ian Bell Eng 704! 44.28 704 v SA at Lord's 2008
S.R.Tendulkar Ind 704 55.31 898 v Zim at Nagpur 2002
15 Rahul Dravid Ind 701 54.88 892 v Pak at Kolkata 2005
16 Andrew Symonds Aus 700* 44.65 718 v WI at Antigua 2008
17 Andrew Strauss Eng 685 42.30 769 v SA at Johannesburg 2005
18 Virender Sehwag Ind 681 51.75 854 v SA at Kolkata 2004
19 Sourav Ganguly Ind 674 42.71 713 v Aus at Adelaide 1999
20 VVS Laxman Ind 672 43.82 753 v Aus at Sydney 2004
Bowlers
Rank Player Team Points Avge HS Rating
1 M.Muralidaran SL 897 21.95 920 v Ban at Kandy 2007
2 Dale Steyn SA 867 22.38 897 v Ind at Ahmedabad 2008
3 Stuart Clark Aus 863*! 21.46 863 v WI at Bridgetown 2008
4 Brett Lee Aus 794 29.58 811 v WI at Antigua 2008
5 Ryan Sidebottom Eng 769*! 25.27 769 v SA at Lord's 2008
6 Makhaya Ntini SA 743 28.23 863 v Ind at Durban 2006
7 Chaminda Vaas SL 709 29.09 800 v Ind at Chennai 2005
8 Anil Kumble Ind 708 29.06 859 v SL at Bangalore 1994
9 Shoaib Akhtar Pak 684 25.69 855 v NZ at Wellington 2003
10 Shane Bond NZ 668* 22.39 778 v WI at Auckland 2006
11 Monty Panesar Eng 640 32.58 721 v WI at Chester-le-St 2007
12 Jerome Taylor WI 628*! 34.69 628 v Aus at Bridgetown 2008
13 Corey Collymore WI 621* 32.30 700 v Eng at Lord's 2007
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 Danish Kaneria Pak 614 33.90 723 v Eng at Multan 2005
17 Matthew Hoggard Eng 612 30.50 795 v SL at Edgbaston 2006
18 Harbhajan Singh Ind 608 31.03 765 v NZ at Wellington 2002
19 Andrew Flintoff Eng 597 32.02 810 v Pak at Multan 2005
20 Daniel Vettori NZ 591 34.43 681 v Aus at Auckland 2000
All-rounders
Rank Player Team Points HS Rating
1 Jacques Kallis SA 464 616 v Pak at Durban 2002
2 Daniel Vettori NZ 324 360 v Eng at Lord's 2008
3 Andrew Flintoff Eng 296 501 v Pak at Multan 2005
4 Dwayne Bravo WI 295*! 295 v Aus at Bridgetown 2008
5 Chaminda Vaas SL 294 300 v WI at Guyana 2008
ICC MEDIA RELEASE