rediff
London, Apr 30: Australia's Adam Gilchrist edged ahead of Mahendra Singh Dhoni of India to recapture the top spot in the LG ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen.
Gilchrist leapfrogged his team-mate and captain Ricky Ponting as well as Dhoni thanks to his performances in the three-match series in Bangladesh that finished on Friday.
The left-hander now holds a slender advantage of just three rating points over Dhoni, who himself assumed the top position from Ponting for the first time less than two weeks ago.
Ponting's modest series in Bangladesh has seen him slip to third in the list but Gilchrist, by contrast, is now just short of his highest-ever tally of rating points.
Australia now has an incredible four players in the top five of the LG ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen with Gilchrist and Ponting joined by Andrew Symonds and Michael Hussey in fourth and fifth spots respectively.
Symonds has his best-ever haul of rating points while Hussey has entered the top five for the first time. Michael Clarke, in 11th position, is another highly-placed player in the batting list while Simon Katich, in 28th spot, also has a career-high total of rating points.
Pathan second in bowlers' rankings
With the ball, India's Irfan Pathan is now in second place in the LG ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers behind Shaun Pollock of South Africa while Australia's highest-ranked player is Glenn McGrath, absent from the Bangladesh series for personal reasons, in fourth position.
Brett Lee is in sixth place while, next to him, is Nathan Bracken, up one spot to seventh and now just short of his highest rating. Also on the up is left-arm spinner Bradley Hogg, the leading wicket-taker in the Bangladesh series, up five places and now into the top 20, in 17th position.
Australia's highest-ranked ODI all-rounder in the LG ICC Player Rankings is Symonds, in fourth position, behind Pollock, England's Andrew Flintoff and Pathan.
Bangladesh does not have a batsman in the top 50 places and left-arm spinner Mohammad Rafique is their top-ranked bowler, in 24th position.
Australia's 3-0 success in the series means it has retained its 13 point lead over South Africa at the top of the LG ICC ODI Championship table, with India a further three points back in third spot.
Bangladesh dropped one rating point to 23 and remains in 10th position in the table.
Chance for West Indies, Zimbabwe to rise
As one ODI series has come to an end, another is about to begin, the seven-match clash between the West Indies and Zimbabwe that gets underway in the Caribbean on Saturday.
The two sides are currently in eighth and ninth places respectively in the LG ICC ODI Championship table and need to buck the recent trend that has seen them both struggle in this form of the game if they are to close the gap on those sides above them.
If the West Indies achieve a clean-sweep of the series they will improve their rating by two points to 91, just 12 behind seventh-placed England. But if Zimbabwe can win the series, it will close the gap considerably on the home side.
A 4-3 Zimbabwe win will see it rise nine rating points to 51 while dropping the West Indies to 79 while a 6-1 win for the African side will lift it to 57 points (West Indies 74).
Brian Lara, recently re-appointed as the West Indies captain, will be making his first ODI appearance for the side since May last year, although he did play three matches for the ICC World XI in the Johnnie Walker Super Series against Australia in October.
Lara has been given the task of leading a West Indies revival after the resignation of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and he will be looking to improve on the side's recent ODI form as their latest outing saw them lose 4-1 in New Zealand.
Lara will also be anxious to improve on his current position in the LG ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen as he begins the series in 33rd spot, one place below Chanderpaul.
Ahead of that duo are Ramnaresh Sarwan (13th) and Chris Gayle (17th) while the side's leading representative at the top end of the of the bowling list is Ian Bradshaw, in joint 15th spot alongside England's Andrew Flintoff and now just short of his highest mark of rating points.
The inexperienced Zimbabwe side is on a learning curve and, like Bangladesh, does not have a batsman in the top 50 while its top-ranked bowler is off-spinner Prosper Utseya, in 45th place and at his best-ever rating.
The rankings:
Teams ODIs: 1. Australia 132, 2. South Africa 119, 3. India 116, 4. Pakistan 114, 5. New Zealand 113, 6. Sri Lanka 105, 7. England 103, 8. West Indies 89, 9. Zimbabwe 42, 10. Bangladesh 23, 11. Kenya.
ODI Rankings (Top 10 batsmen): 1. Adam Gilchrist (AUS), 2. Mahendra Dhoni (IND), 3. Ricky Ponting (AUS), 4. Andrew Symonds (AUS), 5. Mike Hussey (AUS), 6. Graeme Smith (SA), 7. Kevin Pietersen (ENG), 8. Kumar Sangakkara (SL), 9. Rahul Dravid (IND), 10. Yuvraj Singh (IND).
ODI Rankings (Top 10 bowlers): 1. Shaun Pollock (SA), 2. Irfan Pathan (IND), 3. Shane Bond (NZ), 4. Glenn McGrath (AUS), 5. Daniel Vettori (NZ), 6. Brett Lee (AUS), 7. Nathan Bracken (AUS), 8. Muttiah Muralitharan (SL), 9. Chaminda Vaas (SL), 10. Harbhajan Singh (IND).
ODI Rankings (Top five all-rounders): 1. Shaun Pollock (SA), 2. Andrew Flintoff (ENG), 3. Irfan Pathan (IND), 4. Andrew Symonds (AUS), 5. Shoaib Malik (PAK).