Gayle vaults into top 10
West Indies opener Chris Gayle has rocketed into the top 10 of the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen for the first time in his career after stroking a magnificent 333 against Sri Lanka in the Galle Test which ended in a draw on Friday.
Gayle's second career triple century, which came off 437 balls and included 34 fours and nine sixes, lifted the 31-year-old Jamaican from 21st position to 10th spot in the latest rankings which were released today.
Gayle's man-of-the-match performance has earned him 95 ratings points and makes him the second West Indies batsman to find a place inside the top 10 after Shivnarine Chanderpaul who has dropped two places to sixth position after scoring 32 in his only innings in the first of the three-Test series.
South Africa's top order batsmen Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla, Pakistan's Younus Khan and New Zealand's opener Brendon McCullum are the other batsmen inside the top 20 to make progress in the right direction.
Kallis, who scored 73 and 135 not out in the Dubai Test against Pakistan, has gained two places and he now sits in fourth position while Amla's efforts of 80 and 118 not out has helped him to gain four places and puts him alongside India's VVS Laxman in eighth position.
Younus, whose painstaking 344-minute 131 not out helped Pakistan to escape with a draw earlier this week, has jumped six places to 12th in the latest rankings. He is now Pakistan's highest-ranked batsman with 19th-ranked Mohammad Yousuf out of action due to injury.
McCullum, who salvaged a draw for New Zealand in the Hyderabad Test when he scored 225, has vaulted 11 places and now sits just outside the top 20 in 22nd spot. However, McCullum's team-mate Ross Taylor has dropped eight places to 17th position after managing scores of 24 and seven.
New Zealand opener Tim McIntosh, who scored 102 and 49 in Hyderabad, has gained 14 places and he is now ranked 62nd while India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who scored his second consecutive career century against New Zealand, has moved up seven places and now sits in 84th position.
In the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers, South Africa fast bowler Morne Morkel has achieved a career-best ranking.
Morkel, who had match figures of 5-100 in the Dubai Test, has moved up two places to third position. Morkel's team-mate Dale Steyn sits pretty in number-one position while Graeme Swann of England is in second spot.
Also moving in the right directions are Sri Lanka's off-spinner Ajantha Mendis in 24th (up by eight places), India's fast bowler S.Sreesanth in 29th (up by two places), West Indies' fast bowler Kemar Roach in 33rd (up by six places), New Zealand's fast bowler Tim Southee in 46th (up by six places) and Pakistan's off-spinner Saeed Ajmal in 48th (up by two places).
There is no change in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders with Kallis still leading the field.
Meanwhile, India is all set to drop ratings points irrespective of how the Nagpur Test pans out.
Number-one ranked India had entered the series leading eighth-placed New Zealand by 52 ratings points. This gap meant Mahendra Singh Dhoni's side was expected to win the series convincingly. As such, because the rankings are weighted to reflect this difference, India's failure to win the opening two Tests means it will now drop points.
If India wins the Test, it will concede one rating point and will slip to 129 ratings points while New Zealand will rise to 80 ratings points after gaining two ratings points.
On the other side of the coin, if New Zealand wins the third Test and the series 1-0, it will earn nine ratings points which will take it to 87 ratings points while India will drop to 124 ratings points after losing six ratings points.
In case of a drawn series, India will drop four ratings points while New Zealand will pocket five ratings points.
To see how India-New Zealand, Pakistan-South Africa and Sri Lanka-West Indies Test series results might affect the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship table, check out the predictor function on the ICC website at http://www.icc-cricket.com/match_zone/test_predictor.php. Please note the table is updated only at the end of each series.
For information on the ICC Player Rankings go to: www.reliancemobileiccrankings.com.