POSTED: Sunday May 10th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Chanderpaul loses his place at the top of batting rankings

Younus regains number-one position; Pietersen, Strauss and Sarwan also fall as Bopara improves; Swann, Edwards and Onions all make gains in bowling list

West Indies’ Shivnarine Chanderpaul has lost his number-one position in the latest Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen after his side’s 10-wicket defeat to England at Lord’s.

The Guyanese left-hander, who won the player of the year for 2008 at the LG ICC Awards and has been arguably the West Indies’ best batsman since the retirement of Brian Lara, made just four runs in the match and, as a result, has fallen back to second position, level with Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka.

Pakistan’s Younus Khan has therefore moved back on top of the rankings, a position he briefly held earlier this year thanks to the triple-century he scored in the first Test against Sri Lanka at Lahore in late February. The 31-year-old is averaging 51.80 through his 60-match Test career so far and the 313 he scored in that match was the 17th-highest Test score in the history of the game.

Chanderpaul has an immediate chance to make amends, however, with the second and final Test in the series getting underway on Thursday at Chester-le-Street, a ground he knows well having played for Durham in the English County Championship.

Another batsman who has slipped in the rankings is England’s Kevin Pietersen, whose first-ball duck in the first innings at Lord’s has ensured he drops three places in the latest rankings and now sits in ninth position.

Also in the top 20, Ramnaresh Sarwan of the West Indies and England captain Andrew Strauss each lose one place to 14th and 16th positions respectively, with Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman benefiting.

Outside the top 20, Ravi Bopara was the big mover, gaining 45 places to 72nd position after scoring his second Test century for England while Graeme Swann also took a 44-place leap following his unbeaten 63 at Lord’s and he now occupies 122nd position in the rankings.

Man of the match Swann has also made significant gains in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers as his match haul of 22-6-55-6 helped his side to victory and also nudged him up eight places on the ladder.

The 30-year-old off-spinner now sits just outside the top 20 in 23rd position with team-mate Monty Panesar (22nd place) and India’s Ishant Sharma (21st) firmly in his sights as the second Test comes around later this week.

England debutant Graham Onions has broken into the rankings in 52nd position following a memorable start to his Test career. The 26-year-old pace bowler took seven wickets in the match and the Durham player can now look forward to making further gains up the rankings during the second Test, on his home ground.

The bowling of Fidel Edwards was one of the few highlights of the match for the West Indies. His 6-92 in the first innings was the eighth time he had taken five or more wickets in an innings and that performance has earned him two places on the rankings table and moves him back into the top 20 at the expense of Panesar.

Muttiah Muralidaran of Sri Lanka still leads the bowling chart followed by Dale Steyn of South Africa and Australia’s Mitchell Johnson.

The news was not so good for Chris Gayle, who has fallen out of the top five of the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders. The big Jamaican has slipped from fifth to sixth position with Chaminda Vaas of Sri Lanka taking his place. The list is still headed by South Africa’s Jacques Kallis followed by Johnson in second and New Zealand’s Daniel Vettori third.

ICC Test Player Rankings (as of 10 May 2009)

 

Batsmen

 

Rank      (+/-)        Player                    Team      Points    Ave         HS Rating

 

   1           (+1)         Younus Khan       Pak          880 !       51.80      880 v SL at Lahore 2009

   2=         (-1)          S Chanderpaul      WI          854          49.45      901 v NZ at Napier 2008

                (+1)         K Sangakkara        SL           854          54.99      938 v Eng at Kandy 2007

   4           ( - )          Gautam Gambhir   Ind          847 !       54.07      847 v NZ at Wellington 2009

   5           ( - )          M Jayawardena    SL           821          53.23      854 v Ban at Dhaka 2008

   6           (+1)         Ricky Ponting       Aus        785          56.20      942 v Eng at Adelaide 2006

   7           (+1)         Graeme Smith        SA          782          50.33      810 v Aus at Melbourne 2008

   8           (+1)         Michael Clarke      Aus        776          47.82      825 v SA at Sydney 2009

   9           (-3)          Kevin Pietersen    Eng         774          50.51      909 v WI at Headingley 2007

  10          ( - )          Jacques Kallis       SA          755          54.66      935 v NZ at Centurion 2007

  11          ( - )          Ashwell Prince     SA          742          47.29      756 v Pak at Centurion 2007

  12          ( - )          AB de Villiers        SA          740 !       43.92      740 v Aus at Cape Town 2009

  13          (+1)         Sachin Tendulkar Ind          720          54.58      898 v Zim at Nagpur 2002

  14          (-1)          R Sarwan               WI          705          42.03      767 v Eng at Bridgetown 2009

  15          (+1)         VVS Laxman          Ind          703          45.24      753 v Aus at Sydney 2004

  16          (-1)          Andrew Strauss   Eng         700          44.12      769 v SA at Johannesburg 2005

  17          ( - )          Mike Hussey        Aus        696          55.29      921 v WI at Kingston 2008

  18          ( - )          Simon Katich        Aus        692 !       43.42      692 v SA at Cape Town 2009

  19          ( - )          T Samaraweera     SL           687 !       51.07      687 v Pak at Lahore 2009

  20          ( - )          Virender Sehwag  Ind          685          50.06      854 v SA at Kolkata 2004

 

Bowlers

 

Rank      (+/-)        Player                    Team      Points    Ave         HS Rating

 

   1           ( - )          M Muralidaran     SL           855          22.18      920 v Ban at Kandy 2007

   2           ( - )          Dale Steyn             SA          844          23.70      897 v Ind at Ahmedabad 2008

   3           ( - )          Mitchell Johnson Aus        807*       28.01      811 v SA at Durban 2009

   4           ( - )          Stuart Clark           Aus        760*       22.96      863 v WI at Bridgetown 2008

   5           ( - )          Makhaya Ntini      SA          741          28.37      863 v Ind at Durban 2006

   6           ( - )          Harbhajan Singh  Ind          735          30.42      765 v NZ at Wellington 2002

   7           (+1)         Paul Harris             SA          669*!     32.60      669 v Aus at Cape Town 2009

   8           (+1)         Chaminda Vaas     SL           664          29.40      800 v Ind at Chennai 2005

   9           (-2)          Jerome Taylor       WI          655*       34.71      717 v Eng at Kingston 2009

  10          (+1)         Brett Lee                Aus        653          30.81      811 v WI at Antigua 2008

  11          (+1)         Zaheer Khan         Ind          650          33.84      689 v Pak at Delhi 2007

  12          (-2)          Ryan Sidebottom Eng         648*       27.70      769 v SA at Lord’s 2008

  13          ( - )          Umar Gul                Pak          621*       31.34      627 v WI at Karachi 2006

  14          ( - )          Daniel Vettori        NZ          620          33.55      681 v Aus at Auckland 2000

  15          ( - )          James Anderson  Eng         610          35.42      622 v Ind at Chennai 2008

  16=        (+1)         Jacques Kallis       SA          603          31.08      742 v Eng at Headingley 2003

                (-1)          Andrew Flintoff    Eng         603          32.07      810 v Pak at Multan 2005

  18          ( - )          Chris Martin          NZ          600          33.48      643 v Eng at Lord’s 2004

  19          ( - )          Danish Kaneria     Pak          594          34.87      723 v Eng at Multan 2005

  20          (+2)         Fidel Edwards       WI          590 !       38.82      590 v Eng at Lord’s 2009

 

All-rounders

 

Rank      (+/-)        Player                    Team      Points                    HS Rating

 

   1           ( - )          Jacques Kallis       SA          455                         616 v Pak at Durban 2002

   2           ( - )          Mitchell Johnson Aus        375*/*!                  375 v SA at Cape Town 2009

   3           ( - )          Daniel Vettori        NZ          350                         369 v Ban at Dhaka 2008

   4           ( - )          Andrew Flintoff    Eng         275                         501 v Pak at Multan 2005

   5           (+1)         Chaminda Vaas     SL           273                         300 v WI at Guyana 2008

 

* Indicates a provisional rating

! Indicates highest rating of career to date

 

For information on the ICC Player Rankings go to: www.reliancemobileiccrankings.com.

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Keywords · ICC · cricket

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Name: James Fitzgerald
Organization: ICC
Email:
Phone: +971 4 368 8347
URL: http://icc-cricket.yahoo.com

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