Thaindian News

Dubai, Oct 12 (IANS) India will get the opportunity to surpass England in the International Cricket Council (ICC) One-day rankings when they face each other in the five-match series beginning in Hyderabad Friday.

Fifth-ranked India trail fourth-placed England by a single rating point and a good performance in the home series should see them gaining a few places up the rankings ladder.

India were outplayed both in Tests and ODIs on the England Tour that concluded last month.

Number-one ranked are Australia — also ready to lock horns with third-placed South Africa from next Wednesday at Centurion — leaving scope for plenty of movement at the top of the order.

Bangladesh, who are ninth, can also move ahead of eighth-placed West Indies if they win the series 3-0 starting Thursday.

In the rankings for ODI batsmen, England’s Jonathan Trott, who won the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the Cricketer of the Year award at the ICC Awards in London last month, is in fourth position and will be aiming to improve his ranking further in the away series against India.

The 30-year-old trails second-ranked AB de Villiers of South Africa by 54 ratings points and third-ranked Shane Watson of Australia by 10 ratings points.

Trott, who has scored 1,596 runs in 35 ODIs, including 1,113 runs from 24 matches this year, had also played an integral role in England’s 3-0 win over India earlier this English summer.

The next highest-ranked England batsman after Trott is captain Alastair Cook who is in 42nd position while Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell are in 52nd and 55th positions with Ravi Bopara sitting in 65th spot.

India have three batsmen in the top 15 with captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni leading from the front. Dhoni is in sixth position and will be keen to regain the coveted number-one position he surrendered to de Villiers after the tri-nation series in Sri Lanka last August. Dhoni trails fifth-ranked Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka by 13 ratings points while he is 16 ratings points behind Trott.

The other India batsmen aiming to climb up the ladder include Virat Kohli (ninth), Gautam Gambhir (14th) and Suresh Raina (30th).

Amongst the bowlers, England’s Graeme Swann will be hoping to strengthen his position on top of the tree. The off-spinner leads second-ranked New Zealand spinner Daniel Vettori by 27 ratings points.

In the absence of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan will be England’s highest-ranked pace bowler in 27th position.

Likewise, India will also be without its four frontline bowlers - Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel and Harbhajan Singh. In their absence, Praveen Kumar will be highest-ranked India bowler in 21st position.

Rank Team Ratings
1 Australia 130
2 Sri Lanka 119
3 South Africa 116
4 England 113
5 India 112
6 Pakistan 101
7 New Zealand 90
8 West Indies 78
9 Bangladesh 63
10 Zimbabwe 44
11 Ireland 41
12 Netherlands 15
13 Kenya 0