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Kallis, Steyn drop on rankings
14/04/2008 15:31 - (SA)
Dubai - India batsman Sourav Ganguly has returned to the 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.
Graeme Smith has improved
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 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.
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