Dhoni will seek to regain top spot in ODI rankings

Colombo, Aug 12 : India’s hard-hitting batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be looking to reclaim the No.1 spot in the official one-day rankings during the Unitech tri-series tournament beginning here Monday.

Currently ranked No.4 with 779 rating points, Dhoni will be keen to wipe out his recent poor outing in West Indies where he managed 95 runs in five matches. He will strive to nullify the 30-point difference between him and the current leader, Australia’s Adam Gilchrist (809).

Dhoni is one of four Indian batsmen inside the top 20 along with Yuvraj Singh (9th with 735), captain Rahul Dravid (12th with 716) and Virender Sehwag (19th with 679), the International Cricket Council said in a statement.

But one man outside that group who will be especially keen to rejoin it is comeback man Sachin Tendulkar, who is currently not even among the top 20. He is staging a return to the Indian team after recovering from an operation on his right shoulder in London in March.

The 33-year-old Tendulkar, who missed the ODI series against England, Pakistan (in Abu Dhabi) and West Indies following his shoulder surgery, has slipped to 25th in the rankings and has some ground to make up in the tri-series, which also involves South Africa besides hosts Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka has only two batsmen in the top 20 but both of them, Kumar Sangakkara (10th) and Sanath Jayasuriya (13th), are in excellent form as is the player just outside that grouping, captain Jayawardene in 21st spot.

Two places further back is former Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu, making his comeback after a long-term back injury. It will be fascinating to see how he adjusts to the grind in the top order after a lengthy absence, if he is included in the starting line-ups.

South Africa is, as in the recent Test series against Sri Lanka, missing a couple of its batting heavyweights in captain Graeme Smith (its top-ranked batsman in seventh position) and Jacques Kallis (26th) but it still has plenty of class to call upon.

Herschelle Gibbs (15th) returned to form in the second Test this week and Boeta Dippenaar (18th) comes into the squad to bolster the top order, while the ever-dangerous South Africa captain Mark Boucher lies 37th in the batting table.

On the bowling front, the LG ICC Player Rankings suggest India has an edge over its opponents with three players in the top 20 positions.

Pacer Irfan Pathan, who struggled for form in the Caribbean, nevertheless remains well-placed in the bowling table, in seventh spot with 713 points, while spinner Harbhajan Singh lies ninth and Ajit Agarkar is 12th. Pathan is also fifth in the ODI all-rounder list.

South Africa can boast the leading bowler in the rankings in Shaun Pollock and the evergreen performer is also on top in the all-rounder list too, a handy double. One other player for the Proteas inside that top 20 list of bowlers is Makhaya Ntini, though he will enter the series with a question mark over his fitness after picking up a hamstring injury during the second Test of the series against Sri Lanka this past week.

Below the duo, the next highest ranked South Africa bowlers are Andre Nel (22nd) and Andre Hall (23rd).

Like South Africa, Sri Lanka also has two bowlers inside the top 20 and it is no surprise that the duo are spin wizard Muttiah Muralidaran (11th) and left-arm swing and seam bowler Chaminda Vaas (joint 14th with England’s Stephen Harmison). Behind them comes Farveez Maharoof in 26th position.

Batsmen:

1 Adam Gilchrist (Australia) 809 rating points 2 Ramnaresh Sarwan (West Indies) 790 3 Ricky Ponting (Australia) 785 4 Mahendra Dhoni (India) 779 5 Andrew Symonds (Australia) 774 6 Mike Hussey (Australia) 762* 7 Graeme Smith (South Africa) 759 8 Kevin Pietersen (England) 737* 9 Yuvraj Singh (India) 735 10 Kumara Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) 723

Bowlers: 1 Shaun Pollock (South Africa) 858 rating points 2 Shane Bond (New Zealand) 762 3 Glenn McGrath (Australia) 756 4 Daniel Vettori (New Zealand) 750 5 Brett Lee (Australia) 732 6 Nathan Bracken (Australia) 723* 7 Irfan Pathan (India) 713 8 Ian Bradshaw (West Indies) 708 9 Makhaya Ntini (South Africa) 686 and Harbhajan Singh (India) joint

All-rounders: 1 Shaun Pollock (South Africa) 462 2 Andrew Flintoff (England) 407 3 Chris Gayle (West Indies) 404 4 Andrew Symonds (Australia) 378 5 Irfan Pathan (India) 361

* denotes provisional rating

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