Dubai, July 21 (ANI): India will be looking to regain second place
in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship when its goes head to head
with Sri Lanka in a three-Test series starting in Colombo from
Wednesday.

India is currently ranked third behind Australia and
South Africa while Sri Lanka is another couple of places back, behind
fourth-placed England, an ICC statement released here today said.

But
that line-up could all change depending how the India – Sri Lanka and
England –South Africa series pan out. These are the potential scenarios:

·To
regain second place in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship table,
India needs to sweep the series and hope South Africa wins its series
in England 2-1. That will leave India on 118 and South Africa on 116.

·If
India wins 2-1 and South Africa also wins by the same margin, Anil
Kumble’s side will reduce the gap with the Proteas to just one ratings
point, 116 to 115.

·A shared series in Sri Lanka while South
Africa wins its series in England 2-1 will mean India will have 112
ratings points, compared to South Africa’s 116. It will also mean Sri
Lanka swaps places with Michael Vaughan’s side.

If Sri Lanka wins
its series 2-0 and South Africa beats England 2-1, Sri Lanka (110) will
leapfrog both India (108) and England (104) into third place.

·Identical
3-0 wins for Sri Lanka and South Africa will leave India on 106 and
England on 102 while Sri Lanka (112) will move to third and South
africa (119) will be in second place.

·If Sri Lanka beats India
2-1, it will rise to 108 ratings points while India will drop to 109
points in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen, Sri
Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara is on top of the chart. He will be aiming to
return to the 900-point mark he first achieved last year against
England in kandy.

In ranking terms, 900 points marks out a
player as truly great. Only 24 players have achieved that tally in the
131 years of Tests. Sangakkara is only just ahead of second-placed
Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies, which means a disappointing
series could see him lose the top position he has held since March this
year.

Mahela Jayawardena is the other batsman from either side
to figure in the top 10 list. He currently sits in ninth position with
eighth-placed Australia’s Matthew Hayden firmly in his sights.

No
India batsman figures in the top 10 list but there are five of them
inside the top 20 – Sachin Tendulkar (13th), Rahul Dravid (15th),
Virender Sehwag (18th), Sourav Ganguly (19th) and VVS Laxman (20th).

Sri Lanka’s iconic spinner Muttiah Muralidaran leads the Reliance Mobile
ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers. The 36-year-old from Kandy is
Test cricket’s highest wicket-taker with 735 victims and has been
occupying the top spot since February 2006.

Chaminda Vaas, in seventh place, is the other Sri Lanka bowler in the
top 10 while India captain Anil Kumble is just behind Vaas, in eighth
position.

Zaheer Khan (14th) and Harbhajan Singh (18th) have excellent
opportunities to make upward moves. Also eyeing improvements in their
currently positions are R. P Singh (40th), Munaf Patel (47th) and Ishant
Sharma (53rd).

In the all-rounder listing, Jacques Kallis of South Africa remains top, clear
of Daniel Vettori of New Zealand, with Vaas in fifth spot and Kumble and
Sehwag in 10th and 11th positions respectively.

Rank Team Rating

1 Australia 138
2 South Africa 115
3 India 113
4 England 106
5 Sri Lanka 103
6 Pakistan 100
7 New Zealand 83
8 West Indies 81
9 Bangladesh 0 (ANI)