Sports India

Yuvraj Singh has risen one step to ninth in the batting ladder while Harbhajan Singh has broken into the top 10 of the bowlers’ list in the latest ICC ODI Rankings issued here.

Yuvraj, who was 10th in the list after the ODI series loss to West Indies, is the second Indian batsman in the table after Mahendra Singh Dhoni who remains static at the fourth spot.

In the bowlers’ list, Harbhajan has risen to the ninth position after slipping to 11th following the loss in the Caribbean and is joined by Irfan Pathan — placed seventh — in the top 10.

Meanwhile, India faces a tough challenge to its fifth position in the ODI championship table as England’s 5-0 ODI series loss to Sri Lanka has given Mahela Jaywardene’s team four rating points and although it has not improved on its sixth position, it is now just two points short of India.

If it can continue its winning momentum in the upcoming home tri-series against India and second-placed South Africa, then Sri Lanka has the chance to make real progress up the table as it is only five rating points behind Pakistan, in third spot.

However, the defeats have cost England six rating points and sent it sliding down to the eighth spot, one point below the West Indies.

England’s downswing

England has now won just five of its last 19 ODIs, with successive series losses to Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka, and that has seen it shed 12 rating points since the start of December.

Sri Lanka now has three players in the top 20 of the Player Rankings for ODI batsmen with Kumar Sangakkara 10th, the rejuvenated Sanath Jayasuriya up seven places to 15th and Jayawardene rising 12 spots to 20th.

Jayasuriya, Jayawardene and Upul Tharanga each scored two hundreds in the ODI series with England and Tharanga is rewarded for his form with a rise of 38 places in the rankings to the 44th position.

LG ICC ODI Championship Table: Team Rating: 1. Australia 132, 2. South Africa 119, 3. Pakistan 114, 4. New Zealand 113, 5. India 111, 6. Sri Lanka 109, 7. West Indies 98, 8. England 97, 9. Zimbabwe 40, 10. Bangladesh, 23 11. Kenya 7.

LG ICC Player Rankings (Top 10 batsmen): 1. Adam Gilchrist (Aus), 2. Ramnaresh Sarwan (WI), 3. Ricky Ponting (Aus), 4. Mahndra Singh Dhoni (Ind), 5. Andrew Symonds (AusS), 6. Mike Hussey (Aus), 7. Graeme Smith (SA), 8. Kevin Pietersen (Eng), 9. Yuvraj Singh (Ind), 10. Kumara Sangakkara (SL).

LG ICC Player Rankings (Top 10 bowlers): 1. Shaun Pollock (SA), 2. Shane Bond (NZ), 3. Glenn McGrath (Aus), 4. Daniel Vettori (NZ), 5. Brett Lee (Aus), 6. Nathen Bracken (Aus), 7. Irfan Pathan (Ind), 8. Ian Bradshaw (WI), 9. Harbhajan Singh (Ind), 9. Makhaya Ntini (SA).

LG ICC Player Rankings (Top 10 all-rounders): 1. Shaun Pollock (SA), 2. Andrew Flintoff (Eng), 3. Chris Gayle (WI), 4. Andrew Symonds (Aus), 5. Irfan Pathan (Ind), 6. Shoaib Malik (Pak), 7. Sanath Jayasuriya (SL), 8. Abdul Razzaq (Pak), 9. Scott Styris (NZ), 10. Shahid Afridi.