Pak moves to No.4 in ICC Test rankings

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan moved up to fourth position in International Cricket Council’s Test table while Inzamam, Shoaib, Yousuf surge up in player rankings. Pakistan’s 2-0 Test series win over England has seen them move up three places in the LG ICC Test Championship table.
And to add to the good news for the home side, which has recorded a first win in a Test series since December 2003, captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf and Shoaib Akhtar have all surged up the LG ICC Player Rankings. According to an ICC news release issued here, Pakistan’s victories in Multan and Lahore have lifted their rating by eight points to 103 and taken them into fourth place in the table, past South Africa, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
The win leaves them just nine points behind third-placed India, their next Test opponents in a three-match series at home starting in January. If that is not reason enough for Inzamam to celebrate, he can also reflect on his own outstanding form, including twin hundreds in Faisalabad and 97 in Lahore, the latter innings easing him past 8000 Test runs.
That form has lifted him to joint third place in the LG ICC Player Rankings for batsmen alongside Australia’s Ricky Ponting and behind only South Africa’s Jacques Kallis (the ICC Test Player of the Year) and Brian Lara of the West Indies. Inzamam, who became Pakistan’s leading Test centurion of all time with his second hundred in the second Test in Faisalabad (his 24th in that form of the game), can now also boast his highest-ever points tally in the rankings.
Inzamam is no longer the only Pakistan player in the batting top ten as he has been joined by Mohammad Yousuf, whose career-best 223 in Lahore has propelled him up 11 places to ninth spot and close to his best-ever points tally. The news is just as good for Pakistan on the bowling front as Shoaib Akhtar has moved up three places to fourth in the LG ICC Player Rankings for bowlers.  Shoaib claimed six scalps in the Lahore Test as part of a series haul of 17 wickets.
Shoaib’s bowling accomplice on the last day in Lahore, leg-spinner Danish Kaneria, who took four wickets to hasten England’s decline, has also moved up the rankings, easing up two spots to 13th and is now just 10 points short of his best-ever points haul. For England and their players the news is not quite so positive and has served as a massive let-down after the euphoria of the Ashes series win over Australia in September.
Although Michael Vaughan’s side remains in second place in the LG ICC Test Championship table, their rating has dropped six points to 113 because of the series loss. England now trail Australia by 15 points and are also just one point clear of third-placed India, currently in action (rain permitting) against Sri Lanka.
A 1-0 or 2-1 series win for Rahul Dravid’s side in that series will see them join England on 113 points but India will go into second place in the table when the ratings are calculated to three decimal places. Andrew Flintoff has slipped from the top of the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders in the wake of the series in Pakistan.
Flintoff assumed top spot during the Johnnie Walker Super Series but his ranking has slipped over the course of the past three Tests and Kallis is now once again at number one, although Flintoff is still ranked as the best one-day all-rounder. Marcus Trescothick remains England’s only batsman in the top ten (eighth) while Kevin Pietersen (29th) and Flintoff (31st) have both dropped down the listings.  On a more positive note, Ian Bell moved up six slots as a result of the Lahore Test and now stands at 46th with his highest-ever points tally.
In the bowling listings Flintoff (seventh, down three), Matthew Hoggard (12th, down one) and Stephen Harmison (15th, down two) are all heading in the wrong direction. One player to keep an eye on in the batting list is Pakistan’s Kamran Akmal. The diminutive wicketkeeper made his second Test hundred in Lahore and has moved up 28 places to 62nd spot with a career-best points tally.

ICC Test Ranking

Australia 128
England 113
India 112
Pakistan 103
South Africa 100
New Zealand 100
Sri Lanka 99
West Indies 73
Zimbabwe 27
Bangladesh 5

Top Five Batsmen (Test)
Jacques Kallis (SA) 894
Brian Lara (WI) 874
Inzamam-ul-Haq (Pak) 870
Ricky Ponting (Aus) 870
Rahul Dravid (Ind) 851

Top Five bowlers (Test)
Glenn McGrath (Aus) 882
M. Muralidaran (SL) 871
Shane Warne (Aus) 865
Shoaib Akhtar (Pak) 798
Shaun Pollock (SA) 787

—Agencies