January 1, 2007
India captain Rahul Dravid has slipped out of the top five of the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen following his side's defeat to South Africa in Durban last week.
So far in this series Dravid has scored just 49 Test runs at an average of 12.25 and he has now been overtaken on the LG ICC Player Rankings by Sri Lanka wicketkeeper-batsmen Kumar Sangakkara and Australia duo Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey.
There is still time for Dravid to make amends, however, with the third and final Test starting tomorrow (Tuesday) in Cape Town.
In the wake of his fine 153 in the fourth Ashes Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Hayden moved up four places to sixth position. Meanwhile, Australia team-mate Hussey has reached his highest ranking to date, up one place to fourth.
The highest mover in the latest LG ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen is Australia all-rounder Andrew Symonds, whose 279-run partnership with Hayden during the first innings of the Melbourne Test went a long way to securing victory for his team. Symonds has moved up 44 places to 59th position.
Australia captain Ricky Ponting is celebrating starting 2007 in top spot, followed by Pakistan batsman Mohammed Yousuf and Kevin Pietersen of England.
Things are looking good for Australia's bowlers too. Just when questions were being asked about who would fill the hole left when Glenn McGrath retires after the fifth and final Ashes Test, Stuart Clark has come to the fore.
The 31-year-old Sydneysider has cut a consistent figure this summer for Australia and he has now achieved his best-ever position on the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers, having moved up six places to 12th spot. He is only one good performance away from a place in the top ten.
Another Australia player to be hanging up his boots after the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney, starting tomorrow (Tuesday) is leg-spinner Shane Warne but the latest rankings show that he is more than capable of continuing at this level. Apart from maintaining his fourth place for Test bowlers, he has also just equalled his career-best rating in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen, indicating that his form has never been better.
Following a five-wicket haul on the final day of the second Test against India in Durban, South Africa pace bowler Makhaya Ntini has achieved his highest-ever rating and has strengthened his second position behind Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralidaran.
Indeed, when McGrath and Warne retire from Test cricket at the end of this week, Ntini will be more than 100 ratings points ahead of the bowler coming behind in third spot.
India fast bowler S Sreesanth has moved into the top 30 in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers for the first time with another good performance in Durban.
Another player on the rise is South Africa's Shaun Pollock, whose unbeaten 63 in the second innings at Durban helped turn the game towards his side. He has moved up one place, past New Zealander Daniel Vettori, into third position in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders. That list is still headed by Jacques Kallis of South Africa with England's Andrew Flintoff in third.
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