Kumble signs off in 19th spot; Laxman climbs five places; Hayden back in top 10
Gautam Gambhir has achieved his career-best ranking but Rahul Dravid has dropped out of top 20 for the first time in 11 years in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Tes
t batsmen.Gambhir, who scored 206 and 36 in the drawn third Test at New Delhi , has rocketed 11 places to 18th position. Gambhir had started the series in 37th position but has climbed 18 places after three Tests in which he has scored 463 runs.
Man of the match VVS Laxman, who scored 200 not out and 59 not out, has jumped five places to 11th with a place in the top 10 now firmly within his sights.
However, Dravid’s slide in the batting ladder continues and following two knocks of 11, the former India captain has dropped eight places to 26th. It is the first time he has dropped out of top 20 since January 1997 when he slipped to 25th after the Johannesburg Test against South Africa .
Dravid has lost 10 places since the start of the series in which he has scored 117 runs.
Opener Virender Sehwag has also lost ground after a disappointing Test and has dropped three places to 13th.
Sachin Tendulkar has retained his 19th position but Saurav Ganguly has slipped one place to 24th spot.
For Australia , opener Matthew Hayden has returned to the top 10 after knocks of 83 and 16 not out. The Queenslander has climbed two places to ninth position.
However, Mike Hussey, who took over the number-one tag from the West Indies’ Shivnarine Chanderpaul after the first Test in Bangalore, has slipped one more place to fourth while Michael Clarke has also dropped one position to 14th.
It has been a forgettable Test for the bowlers as the rankings of all the strike bowlers have taken a beating. The only bowler to benefit was Virender Sehwag whose 5-104 in Australia ’s 577 has lifted him nine places to 48th.
Australia ’s new ball pair of Stuart Clark and Brett Lee slipped one place each to third and fifth respectively while India ’s pace duo of Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma dropped two and five places respectively. Khan now shares 15th spot with Pakistan ’s Mohammad Asif while Sharma is in 36th position.
India captain Anil Kumble is the only bowler to have retained his place in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Ranking for Test bowlers as he ends his illustrious 132-Test career in 19th position. It is, however, his lowest ranking since January 1993 when he had dropped out of the top 20 after the Newlands, Cape Town Test against South Africa .
Despite being the third leading wicket-taker (619) in the 131-year history of Test cricket behind Sri Lanka ’s Muthiah Muralidaran (756) and Australia ’s Shane Warne (708), Kumble never quite scaled the 900-point mark and never reached the top spot despite being a regular fixture in the top 10.
His highest ranking was second which he achieved in November 1995 after the Chennai Test against New Zealand .
The 37-year-old stalwart also gained four places in the batting and one place in the all-rounders’ table to finish his career in 86th and 12th positions respectively.
Reliance Mobile ICC Test Rankings (as of 3 November)
Batsmen
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Ave HS Rating
1 ( - ) S.Chanderpaul WI 890! 49.08 890 v Aus at Bridgetown 2008
2 ( - ) K. Sangakkara SL 886 54.79 938 v Eng at Kandy 2007
3 (+1) Mohd Yousuf Pak 880 55.49 933 v WI at Karachi 2006
4 (-1) Mike Hussey Aus 877 66.92 921 v WI at Kingston 2008
5 ( - ) Ricky Ponting Aus 859 58.05 942 v Eng at Adelaide 2006
6 ( - ) M. Jayawardena SL 837 52.41 847 v Ind at Colombo (SSC) 2008
7 ( - ) Kevin Pietersen Eng 829 50.51 905 v WI at Headingley 2007
8 ( - ) Yunus Khan Pak 799 49.14 856 v Eng at Headingley 2006
9 (+2) Matthew Hayden Aus 780 52.72 935 v Eng at Brisbane 2002
10 (-1) Jacques Kallis SA 774 55.46 935 v NZ at Centurion 2007
11 (+5) VVS Laxman Ind 742 45.41 753 v Aus at Sydney 2004
12 ( - ) Graeme Smith SA 739 49.23 759 v Eng at Edgbaston 2008
13 (-3) Virender Sehwag Ind 735 51.44 854 v SA at Kolkata 2004
14 (-1) Michael Clarke Aus 714 46.78 761 v Ind at Melbourne 2007
15 (-1) Alastair Cook Eng 686 42.88 707 v SL at Galle 2007
16= (-2) Andrew Symonds Aus 679* 44.65 718 v WI at Antigua 2008
( - ) AB de Villiers SA 679! 41.61 679 v Eng at The Oval 2008
18 (+11) Gautam Gambhir Ind 670*! 44.39 670 v Aus at Delhi 2008
19 ( - ) Sachin Tendulkar Ind 665 54.25 898 v Zim at Nagpur 2002
20= ( - ) Ramnaresh Sarwan WI 659 40.40 697 v Eng at Old Trafford 2004
( - ) Ashwell Prince SA 659 42.23 756 v Pak at Centurion 2007
Bowlers
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Ave Econ HS Rating
1 ( - ) M. Muralidaran SL 895 21.96 920 v Ban at Kandy 2007
2 (+1) Dale Steyn SA 847 22.51 897 v Ind at Ahmedabad 2008
3 (-1) Stuart Clark Aus 829* 22.89 863 v WI at Bridgetown 2008
4 (+1) Makhaya Ntini SA 760 28.22 863 v Ind at Durban 2006
5 (-1) Brett Lee Aus 755 30.25 811 v WI at Antigua 2008
6 ( - ) Ryan Sidebottom Eng 738* 25.68 769 v SA at Lord's 2008
7= ( - ) Chaminda Vaas SL 684 29.31 800 v Ind at Chennai 2005
( - ) Shoaib Akhtar Pak 684 25.69 855 v NZ at Wellington 2003
9 ( - ) Harbhajan Singh Ind 658 30.96 765 v NZ at Wellington 2002
10 ( - ) Shane Bond NZ 654* 22.39 778 v WI at Auckland 2006
11 ( - ) Monty Panesar Eng 653 31.95 721 v WI at Chester-le-St 2007
12 ( - ) Daniel Vettori NZ 647 33.39 681 v Aus at Auckland 2000
13 (+1) Jerome Taylor WI 628*! 34.69 628 v Aus at Bridgetown 2008
14 (+1) James Anderson Eng 620! 34.51 620 v SA at The Oval 2008
15= (+1) Mohammad Asif Pak 619* 23.13 710 v SA at Cape Town 2007
(-2) Zaheer Khan Ind 619 34.11 689 v Pak at Delhi 2007
17 ( - ) Andrew Flintoff Eng 615 32.21 810 v Pak at Multan 2005
18 ( - ) Danish Kaneria Pak 614 33.90 723 v Eng at Multan 2005
19 ( - ) Anil Kumble Ind 602 29.66 859 v SL at Bangalore 1994
20 ( - ) Matthew Hoggard Eng 593 30.50 795 v SL at Edgbaston 2006
All-rounders
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points HS Rating
1 ( - ) Jacques Kallis SA 458 616 v Pak at Durban 2002
2 ( - ) Daniel Vettori NZ 369! 369 v Ban at Dhaka 2008
3 ( - ) Andrew Flintoff Eng 302 501 v Pak at Multan 2005
4 ( - ) Dwayne Bravo WI 295/*! 295 v Aus at Bridgetown 2008
5 ( - ) Chaminda Vaas SL 281 300 v WI at Guyana 2008
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