ICC MEDIA RELEASE
Dubai , 20 January 2008
Fast bowler Clark returns to second place while Hussey overtakes Ponting in batting list for the first time; Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman and Sehwag are all on the rise
India ’s Irfan Pathan has re-established himself as one of the most promising all-rounders in the game and in the process has made a big impact on the latest LG ICC Player Rankings following a match-winning performance against Australia in the third Test at Perth .
Returning to action after missing the Melbourne and Sydney Tests, the 23-year-old from Baroda scored 28 and 46 with the bat, claimed 5-117 in the match and in the process leapfrogged Australia ’s Brett Lee and West Indies duo of Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo to sixth spot in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders.
Pathan has now set his sights on fifth-placed Chaminda Vaas of Sri Lanka as only eight points separate the two left-handers.
Andrew Symonds, Stuart Clark and Virender Sehwag also improve their all-rounders’ rankings. Symonds climbed two places to 12th position, Clark is up three spots to 15th position and Sehwag has rocketed eight places to 22nd.
India captain Anil Kumble, however, dropped out of the top 10 list after sliding two places to 11th position in the list that is still headed by South Africa ’s Jacques Kallis.
Pathan also made the right movement in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers when he climbed six places to join Kumble and injured Zaheer Khan in the top 20.
Pathan is now ranked in 19th spot and will be hoping for another good show at Adelaide that will help him to overtake Pakistan pair of Mohammad Asif and Danish Kaneria as well as New Zealand ’s James Franklin. Only 24 ratings points separate 16th-placed Asif from Pathan who is now just three short of 100 Test wickets.
Pathan’s contributions with the bat in different batting positions and in difficult situations have also allowed him to improve his batting standing. He is now in 57th position in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen after rising seven places.
And Pathan is not the only player from Team India to make the upward movement.
In the batting charts, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Sehwag and Mahendra Singh Dhoni have all made improvements. Tendulkar and Dravid rose one position each and now sit on 13th and 15th positions respectively, Laxman climbed one place to 17th spot, Sehwag jumped three places to share 32nd place with Pakistan’s Kamran Akmal and England’s Marcus Trescothick while Dhoni lifted one place to share 41st spot with team-mate Wasim Jaffer.
Jaffer is one of the two Indian batsmen to lose ground with the other being former captain Sourav Ganguly. Ganguly dropped five places to fall out of the top 20 list and is now ranked 22nd while Jaffer slides one place to 42nd spot.
In the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers, Pathan’s new-ball partner RP Singh climbed three places to 29th position while Ishant Sharma jumped 18 places to 69th place.
Despite its first defeat in 17 Tests, there was some good news for Australia as well.
Fast bowler Clark was back in second place in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers. The 32-year-old from New South Wales , who took 6-106 in the match, swapped places with South Africa ’s Dale Steyn.
Brett Lee cemented his fourth position by achieving a career-best rating along with Clark while Mitchell Johnson improved his ranking by three places to 51st position, one ahead of Symonds who climbed four places and now sits on a career-high 52nd spot.
The bowling list is still headed by Sri Lanka ’s Muthiah Muralidaran who is the only bowler currently beyond the magic 900-mark.
In the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen, Australia ’s captain Ricky Ponting’s slide continues and he has now dropped to fourth position after entering the series as the leading batsman.
Ponting’s failure to score heavily in this series has allowed Michael Hussey to rise to third for the first time in his career. Hussey is still qualifying for a full rating and because his provisional rating is exceptionally high, for a couple more innings he will be able to score relatively modestly and still move up. Batsmen qualify for full ratings when they have played 40 Test innings.
Symonds is the other Australia batsman to make the upward movement when he broke into the top 20 for the first time in his career. He climbs three places to sit on 18th position.
Besides that trio, Matthew Hayden, who is likely to bolster Australia after missing the Perth Test, is in sixth position, Michael Clarke stays in 12th spot and just 10 points adrift of South Africa ’s Ashwell Prince in 11th place and Adam Gilchrist is on 23rd position.
The only other Australia batsman to lose ground along with Ponting is opener Phil Jacques who drops four places to 28th spot.
By virtue of its 72-run victory at Perth, India has assured itself a second place in the LG ICC Test Championship table behind Australia regardless of how the Adelaide Test pans out.
If the final Test is a draw, India will move two ratings points ahead of third-placed Sri Lanka and if Kumble’s side manages to square the series, it will finish on 113 ratings points, four ahead of Mahela Jayawardena’s side. Even if Australia wins the match in Adelaide , India will sit above Sri Lanka when ratings points are calculated beyond the decimal point.
The table is only updated at the conclusion of each series.
LG ICC Test Rankings (as of 20 January)
Batsmen
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Ave HS Rating
1 ( - ) K.C.Sangakkara SL 933 56.37 938 v Eng at Kandy 2007
2 ( - ) Jacques Kallis SA 917 58.11 935 v NZ at Centurion 2007
3 (+1) Mike Hussey Aus 908*! 80.22 908 v Ind at Perth 2008
4 (-1) Ricky Ponting Aus 889 58.04 942 v Eng at Adelaide 2006
5 ( - ) Mohd Yousuf Pak 880 55.49 933 v WI at Karachi 2006
6 ( - ) Matthew Hayden Aus 849 53.19 935 v Eng at Brisbane 2002
7 ( - ) M.Jayawardena SL 835 51.93 836 v Eng at Birmingham 2002
8 ( - ) S.Chanderpaul WI 816 47.31 838 v SA at Cape Town 2008
9 ( - ) Kevin Pietersen Eng 804 50.40 909 v WI at Leeds 2007
10 ( - ) Yunus Khan Pak 799 49.14 856 v Eng at Leeds 2006
11 ( - ) Ashwell Prince SA 730 44.25 756 v Pak at Centurion 2007
12 ( - ) Michael Clarke Aus 720 44.79 761 v Ind at Melbourne 2007
13= (+1) S.R.Tendulkar Ind 711 55.31 898 v Zim at Nagpur 2002
(-1) Alastair Cook Eng 711 ! 45.02 711 v SL at Galle 2007
15 (+1) Rahul Dravid Ind 710 55.25 892 v Pak at Kolkata 2005
16 (-2) Stephen Fleming NZ 702 ! 39.73 702 v Ban at Wellington 2008
17 (+1) VVS Laxman Ind 690 44.40 753 v Aus at Sydney 2004
18 (+3) Andrew Symonds Aus 666*! 41.70 666 v Ind at Perth 2008
19 ( - ) Graeme Smith SA 665 47.00 756 v NZ at Wellington 2004
20 ( - ) P.D.Collingwood Eng 664 42.76 730 v Aus at Adelaide 2006
Bowlers
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Ave HS Rating
1 ( - ) M.Muralidaran SL 907 21.77 920 v Ban at Kandy 2007
2 (+1) Stuart Clark Aus 843*! 19.98 843 v Ind at Perth 2008
3 (-1) Dale Steyn SA 832*! 23.21 832 v WI at Durban 2008
4 ( - ) Brett Lee Aus 793 ! 29.87 793 v Ind at Perth 2008
5 ( - ) Makhaya Ntini SA 768 28.00 863 v Ind at Durban 2006
6 ( - ) Anil Kumble Ind 755 28.72 859 v SL at Bangalore 1994
7 ( - ) Shane Bond NZ 709* 22.39 778 v WI at Auckland 2006
8 ( - ) Shaun Pollock SA 702 23.11 909 v Eng at Johannesburg 1999
9 ( - ) Matthew Hoggard Eng 695 30.01 795 v SL at Birmingham 2006
10 ( - ) Shoaib Akhtar Pak 684 25.69 855 v NZ at Wellington 2003
11 ( - ) Chaminda Vaas SL 666 29.43 800 v Ind at Chennai 2005
12 ( - ) Corey Collymore WI 653* 32.30 700 v Eng at Lord's 2007
13 ( - ) Zaheer Khan Ind 645 33.60 689 v Pak at Delhi 2007
14 ( - ) Andrew Flintoff Eng 640 32.02 810 v Pak at Multan 2005
15 ( - ) Chris Martin NZ 626 32.47 643 v Eng at Lord's 2004
16 ( - ) Mohammad Asif Pak 619* 23.13 710 v SA at Cape Town 2007
17 ( - ) Danish Kaneria Pak 614 33.90 723 v Eng at Multan 2005
18 ( - ) James Franklin NZ 612* 28.19 679 v SL at Christchurch 2006
19 (+6) Irfan Pathan Ind 595* 31.22 761 v SL at Delhi 2005
20 (-1) Monty Panesar Eng 589* 32.76 721 v WI at Chester-le-St 2007
All-rounders
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points HS Rating
1 ( - ) Jacques Kallis SA 527 616 v Pak at Durban 2002
2 ( - ) Andrew Flintoff Eng 340 501 v Pak at Multan 2005
3 ( - ) Daniel Vettori NZ 337! 337 v Ban at Wellington 2008
4 ( - ) Shaun Pollock SA 323 490 v Eng at The Oval 2003
5 ( - ) Chaminda Vaas SL 276 281 v Ind at Chennai 2005