By IANS
Dubai : Out-of-form Rahul Dravid Sunday slipped two places to 14th in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test rankings, but he still remains India’s best-placed batsman as Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara tops the list, displacing Australian captain Ricky Ponting.
Although his team lost the first Test to Australia in Melbourne over the weekend, captain Anil Kumble (754 rating points) climbed two places to the fourth position to be the best Indian bowler.
Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly also climbed one place each to be the 17th and 18th spots in the batsmen’s list.
Dravid has 692 rating points while Sangakkara (933) is back at the top, pushing Australian captain Ricky Ponting (917) two places down the list. South Africa’s Jacques Kallia, who retained his second position with 923 points, suffered rare batting failure against West Indies in Port Elizabeth like Ponting who scored only four and three in the two innings of the Melbourne Test.
Sangakkara’s return to the top means that Sri Lanka again have grabbed the top positions in both the batsmen and bowlers’ categories. World record-breaking off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan is atop the bowlers’ list with 907 points.
Batsmen:
1 Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) 933 rating points
2 Jacques Kallis (South Africa) 923
3 Ricky Ponting (Australia) 917
4 Mike Hussey (Australia) 882
5 Mohammed Yousuf (Pakistan) 880
6 Matthew Hayden (Australia) 847
7 Mahela Jayawardena (Sri Lanka) 835
8 Kevin Pietersen (England) 804
9 Younis Khan (Pakistan) 799
10 Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies) 790
Bowlers:
1 Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka) 907
2 Stuart Clark (Australia) 822
3 Makhaya Ntini (South Africa) 795
4 Anil Kumble (India) 754
5 Brett Lee (Australia) 752
6 Dale Steyn (South Africa) 749
7 Shane Bond (New Zealand) 724
8 Matthew Hoggard (England) 695
9 Shaun Pollock (South Africa) 694
10 Shoaib Akhtar (Pakistan) 684
All-rounders:
1 Jacques Kallis (South Africa) 537
2 Andrew Flintoff (England) 340
3 Shaun Pollock (South Africa) 322
4 Daniel Vettori (New Zealand) 316
5 Chaminda Vaas (Sri Lanka) 276