Dubai, 9 December 2008
England can gain one spot to fourth; West Indies and New Zealand fight it out for seventh position; chance for Pietersen to break back into top five batsmen; India’s best batsmen all eyeing places in the top 10
India will go second in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship table if it beats England in the upcoming two-Test series that gets underway in Chennai on Thursday.
By winning the series 1-0 or 2-0, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team will overtake South Africa and recapture second, a position it had briefly enjoyed after its 2-0 home series victory over Australia recently.
But just like it was the last time India rose to second in the rankings, South Africa will have an immediate opportunity to take back that place with a three-match series in Australia on the horizon. The first match of that series begins in Perth on 17 December.
England will also be eyeing a good opportunity while in India. A 2-0 series win will see it move up one place to fourth in the standings, ahead of Sri Lanka. That result would also bring it to within three ratings points of India in third position.
A drawn series or a 1-0 win for England would leave the teams in their current positions although in both instances, India would lose ground on South Africa while Kevin Pietersen’s team would close the gap on Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, close rivals the West Indies and New Zealand do battle over the next couple of weeks in a two-Test series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. The first Test takes place in Dunedin beginning on Thursday with the second one scheduled for Napier from 19 December.
At present, New Zealand is placed in eighth position, just a fraction of a ratings point behind the West Indies. A drawn series would leave that state of affairs unchanged but a 1-0 or 2-0 win for the Black Caps would see them leap-frog over Chris Gayle and his men.
Equally, a series win for the West Indies would widen that narrow gap between the sides so there is plenty to play for as the players take the field.
As far as the players are concerned, there will be plenty of opportunities for them to make progress up the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Player Rankings with many of the world’s top performers on show.
Pietersen is the highest-ranked batsman taking part in the India v England series and he can break back into the top five with a good display in these two matches. His team-mates Alistair Cook (in 16th position) and Paul Collingwood (in 20th position) should also get the chance to make further inroads towards the top 10.
India has four batsmen in the top 20 with Virender Sehwag (10th), VVS Laxman (14th), Sachin Tendulkar (17th) and Gautam Ghambhir (18th) all out to impress.
Of course, they are all a long way behind number-one batsman and the ICC Cricketer of the Year for 2008 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who will be a key part of the West Indies’ line-up in New Zealand.
He will be supported by Ramnaresh Sarwan in 19th position and Chris Gayle (30th position). There are currently no New Zealand batsmen in the top 30 but Ross Taylor (in 33rd place), Daniel Vettori (in 36th), Brendon McCullum (in 38th place) and Jacob Oram (in 40th position) will be trying to do something about that.
On the bowling front, the only player in the top-10 who will take part in either of these series is Harbhajan Singh in seventh position. The 28-year-old will be anxious to make further progress up the rankings although he still has a long way to go to catch Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralidaran at the top.
With conditions likely to favour the spinners, England’s Monty Panesar will be keen to exploit that and perhaps break into the top 10 from his current position in 11th. Other players in the top 20 in this series are James Anderson (15th place), Andrew Flintoff (17th) and Zaheer Khan (20th).
While their respective teams are almost tied on the rankings, the same is true for West Indies pace man Jerome Taylor and Kiwi slow left-armer Vettori. Taylor is just ahead of the New Zealand captain in 13th position but another strong home performance from Vettori in 14th place could change all that.
Upcoming matches:
11-15 Dec – India v England (Test), Chennai
19-23 Dec – India v England (Test), Mohali
11-15 Dec – New Zealand v West Indies (Test), Dunedin
19-23 Dec – New Zealand v West Indies (Test), Napier
Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship (as of 9 December)
Rank Team Rating
1 Australia 130
2 South Africa 117
3 India 116
4 Sri Lanka 108
5 England 104
6 Pakistan 100
7 West Indies 81
8 New Zealand 81
9 Bangladesh 0
Reliance Mobile ICC Test Rankings (as of 9 December)
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 Mohd Yousuf Pak 880 55.49 933 v WI at Karachi 2006
4 Mike Hussey Aus 855 64.18 921 v WI at Kingston 2008
5 M Jayawardena SL 837 52.41 847 v Ind at Colombo (SSC) 2008
6 Kevin Pietersen Eng 829 50.51 905 v WI at Headingley 2007
7 Ricky Ponting Aus 806 57.18 942 v Eng at Adelaide 2006
8 Yunus Khan Pak 799 49.14 856 v Eng at Headingley 2006
9 Graeme Smith SA 772 49.95 783 v Ban at Bloemfontein 2008
10 Virender Sehwag Ind 765 51.96 854 v SA at Kolkata 2004
11 Michael Clarke Aus 750 47.01 761 v Ind at Melbourne 2007
12 Jacques Kallis SA 748 55.06 935 v NZ at Centurion 2007
13 Matthew Hayden Aus 734 51.87 935 v Eng at Brisbane 2002
14 VVS Laxman Ind 732 45.25 753 v Aus at Sydney 2004
15 Ashwell Prince SA 731 45.68 756 v Pak at Centurion 2007
16 Alastair Cook Eng 686 42.88 707 v SL at Galle 2007
17 Sachin Tendulkar Ind 683 54.30 898 v Zim at Nagpur 2002
18 Gautam Gambhir Ind 663* 44.39 670 v Aus at Delhi 2008
19 R Sarwan WI 659 40.40 697 v Eng at Old Trafford 2004
20 P Collingwood Eng 657 42.01 730 v Aus at Adelaide 2006
Bowlers
Rank Player Team Points Ave Econ HS Rating
1 M Muralidaran SL 895 21.96 920 v Ban at Kandy 2007
2 Dale Steyn SA 816 22.67 897 v Ind at Ahmedabad 2008
3 Stuart Clark Aus 806* 22.96 863 v WI at Bridgetown 2008
4 Makhaya Ntini SA 797 27.69 863 v Ind at Durban 2006
5 Brett Lee Aus 744 30.11 811 v WI at Antigua 2008
6 Ryan Sidebottom Eng 738* 25.68 769 v SA at Lord's 2008
7 Harbhajan Singh Ind 688 30.77 765 v NZ at Wellington 2002
8= Chaminda Vaas SL 684 29.31 800 v Ind at Chennai 2005
Shoaib Akhtar Pak 684 25.69 855 v NZ at Wellington 2003
Mitchell Johnson Aus 684*! 29.39 684 v NZ at Adelaide 2008
11 Monty Panesar Eng 653 31.95 721 v WI at Chester-le-St 2007
12 Shane Bond NZ 641* 22.39 778 v WI at Auckland 2006
13 Jerome Taylor WI 628*! 34.69 628 v Aus at Bridgetown 2008
14 Daniel Vettori NZ 624 33.50 681 v Aus at Auckland 2000
15 James Anderson Eng 620 ! 34.51 620 v SA at The Oval 2008
16 Mohammad Asif Pak 619* 23.13 710 v SA at Cape Town 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 Jacques Kallis SA 600 30.92 742 v Eng at Headingley 2003
20 Zaheer Khan Ind 599 34.59 689 v Pak at Delhi 2007
All-rounders
Rank Player Team Points HS Rating
1 Jacques Kallis SA 449 616 v Pak at Durban 2002
2 Daniel Vettori NZ 338 369 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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