Dubai , 14 April 2008
Steyn fails to hold on to top spot and slips behind Muralidaran while player-of-the-series Harbhajan Singh continues to move in the right direction
India batsman Sourav Ganguly has returned to top 20 of the ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen after a man-of-the-match performance in Kanpur which helped India win the Test by eight wickets and draw the series against South Africa 1-1.
Ganguly scored 87 and 13 not out in a low-scoring match, which helps him gain seven places on the ladder. He now sits in 17th place and is one of five India batsmen to figures in the top 20.
Interestingly, however, no India batsman appears inside the top 10 positions.
Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman are the other India batsmen to appear in the top 20. Tendulkar, who missed the last two Tests through injury, has dropped one place to 13th position while Dravid lies in 14th place, gaining one spot.
Sehwag, who became India’s top ranked player in 12th position after hitting a swashbuckling 319 in Chennai, drops two places and is now ranked 15th while Laxman, who scored 50 in Kanpur, stays in 19th spot.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who captained India in Kanpur , has climbed four places and is now ranked 39th.
South Africa captain Graeme Smith has improved his ranking by two places and is now in 12th spot after knocks of 69 and 35 at Green Park .
However, Jacques Kallis, who surged to the top of batting chart after the series in Pakistan last year in October, continues his slide and is now fifth after dropping three places, while AB de Villiers falls five places to 26th spot.
Ashwell Prince, Hashim Amla and Neil McKenzie have held steady in 23rd, 28th and 33rd positions respectively.
South Africa’s Dale Steyn squandered the opportunity to go top of the table on his own, having been level with Muttiah Muraldaran after the second Test in Ahmedabad, and drops to second place in the ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers. He is, however, well ahead of his nearest rival, Australia ’s Stuart Clark.
India captain Anil Kumble remains his country’s highest ranked bowler despite dropping one place to seventh after missing the series decider because of a groin injury, while left-arm fast bowler Zaheer Khan, who also missed the series through injury, remains the second highest ranked India bowler in 14th position – a place he shares with Pakistan’s Mohammad Asif.
India spinner Harbhajan Singh, who won the player-of-the-series award for his 19 wickets, rises one place to 19th position in a congested lower half of the top 20, where just 13 ratings points separates him from 13th placed Andrew Flintoff of England.
Sehwag may have slipped in batting rankings but he has climbed eight places in the bowling list and now sits in 51st position, two places ahead of Ishant Sharma, who took five wickets in his only appearance in the series in Kanpur .
The two South Africa bowlers to make upward movements are left-arm spinner Paul Harris and fast bowler Morne Morkel who improve two and nine places respectively to 39th and 56th spots.
ICC Test Rankings (as of 14 April)
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 (+1) K.C.Sangakkara SL 893 55.19 938 v Eng at Kandy 2007
4 (+1) Mohd Yousuf Pak 880 55.49 933 v WI at Karachi 2006
5 (-3) 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 (+2) Graeme Smith SA 712 48.57 756 v NZ at Wellington 2004
13 (-1) S.R.Tendulkar Ind 704 55.31 898 v Zim at Nagpur 2002
14 (+1) Rahul Dravid Ind 701 54.88 892 v Pak at Kolkata 2005
15 (-2) 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= (+7) 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 (-2) P.D.Collingwood Eng 668 42.54 730 v Aus at Adelaide 2006
Bowlers
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Ave Econ HS Rating
1 ( - ) M.Muralidaran SL 897 21.95 920 v Ban at Kandy 2007
2 (-1) 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 (+1) Chaminda Vaas SL 709 29.09 800 v Ind at Chennai 2005
7 (-1) 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 (+1) Andrew Flintoff Eng 621 32.02 810 v Pak at Multan 2005
14= (-1) Zaheer Khan Ind 619 33.60 689 v Pak at Delhi 2007
(+1) 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 (+1) Harbhajan Singh Ind 608 31.03 765 v NZ at Wellington 2002
20 (-1) 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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