India aims high in Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship table

India will be looking to regain second place in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship when its goes head to head with Sri Lanka in a three-Test series starting in Colombo from Wednesday.

Dubai, July 21 : India will be looking to regain second place in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship when its goes head to head with Sri Lanka in a three-Test series starting in Colombo from Wednesday.

India is currently ranked third behind Australia and South Africa while Sri Lanka is another couple of places back, behind fourth-placed England, an ICC statement released here today said.

But that line-up could all change depending how the India - Sri Lanka and England -South Africa series pan out.hese are the potential scenarios:

To regain second place in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship table, India needs to sweep the series and hope South Africa wins its series in England 2-1. That will leave India on 118 and South Africa on 116.

If India wins 2-1 and South Africa also wins by the same margin, Anil Kumble's side will reduce the gap with the Proteas to just one ratings point, 116 to 115.

A shared series in Sri Lanka while South Africa wins its series in England 2-1 will mean India will have 112 ratings points, compared to South Africa's 116. It will also mean Sri Lanka swaps places with Michael Vaughan's side.

If Sri Lanka wins its series 2-0 and South Africa beats England 2-1, Sri Lanka (110) will leapfrog both India (108) and England (104) into third place.

Identical 3-0 wins for Sri Lanka and South Africa will leave India on 106 and England on 102 while Sri Lanka (112) will move to third and South Africa (119) will be in second place.

If Sri Lanka beats India 2-1, it will rise to 108 ratings points while India will drop to 109 points

In the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen, Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara is on top of the chart. He will be aiming to return to the 900-point mark he first achieved last year against England in Kandy.

In ranking terms, 900 points marks out a player as truly great. Only 24 players have achieved that tally in the 131 years of Tests.

Sangakkara is only just ahead of second-placed Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies, which means a disappointing series could see him lose the top position he has held since March this year.

Mahela Jayawardena is the other batsman from either side to figure in the top 10 list. He currently sits in ninth position with eighth-placed Australia's Matthew Hayden firmly in his sights.

No India batsman figures in the top 10 list but there are five of them inside the top 20 - Sachin Tendulkar (13th), Rahul Dravid (15th), Virender Sehwag (18th), Sourav Ganguly (19th) and VVS Laxman (20th).

Sri Lanka's iconic spinner Muttiah Muralidaran leads the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers. The 36-year-old from Kandy is Test cricket's highest wicket-taker with 735 victims and has been occupying the top spot since February 2006.

Chaminda Vaas, in seventh place, is the other Sri Lanka bowler in the top 10 while India captain Anil Kumble is just behind Vaas, in eighth position.

Zaheer Khan (14th) and Harbhajan Singh (18th) have excellent opportunities to make upward moves. Also eyeing improvements in their currently positions are R.P Singh (40th), Munaf Patel (47th) and Ishant Sharma (53rd).

In the all-rounder listing, Jacques Kallis of South Africa remains top, clear of Daniel Vettori of New Zealand, with Vaas in fifth spot and Kumble and Sehwag in 10th and 11th positions respectively.

Rank Team Rating 1 Australia 138

2 South Africa 115

3 India 113

4 England 106

5 Sri Lanka 103

6 Pakistan 100

7 New Zealand 83

8 West Indies 81

9 Bangladesh 0

ANI