ICC ranking: Sachin closes in on top spot

Sachin Tendulkar has closed the gap on Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara to just two ratings points at the top of the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Rankings following his 50th Test century in the Centurion Test which finished on Monday. 

According to an ICC release, Tendulkar is on 880 points to Sangakkara’s 882 points while Jacques Kallis has moved up to third spot courtesy his double hundred against India at the Centurion. 

Dashing Indian opener Virender Sehwag dropped a place down to fourth. However apart from V.V.S. Laxman who is 15th in the list, no other Indian player features in the list of top-20 batsmen. 

Mike Hussey has made the most significant strides with his matchwinning effort at Perth as he gained eight places to be at sixth position. 

However in list of Test bowlers, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh are placed seventh and tenth respectively. But both the senior Indian bowlers have dropped three and two places in the rankings list. Ishant Sharma is the other Indian bowler who has held on to his 15th position among the top-20. 

Dale Steyn and Graeme Swann continue as the top two in the Bowlers’ list followed by Morne Morkel and Mitchell Johnson both of whom have up come up three places from their earlier rank to be third and fourth respectively.

James Anderson and tainted Pakistani pacer Mohammed Asif are at fifth and sixth positions respectively.