Sachin and Dravid gained in ICC player rankings in Test batsmen

Dubai: Senior batsmen Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid gained a place each in the latest ICC player rankings for Test batsmen, which is being headed by South Africa all-rounder Jacques Kallis.

While Tendulkar improved from fifth to fourth, Dravid rose a rung to ninth from tenth position.
Among Indian bowlers, pace spearhead Zaheer Khan gained a place to be at sixth despite being ruled out of the recently concluded four-match Test series between India and England after sustaining hamstring injury on the very first day of the opening match at Lord's.
As England claimed the title of number-one Test side in the world with a 4-0 series victory, four of their batsmen made it to the top-10, with Ian Bell being the most notable.
Bell and Alastair Cook have jointly claimed the second position after Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara slipped three places to fifth after scoring only 10 and 17 in the recently completed Test against Australia.
Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott are other batsmen in the top-10. England now boast of four bowlers and equal number of batsmen in the top 10.
Australia's Shane Watson and Ryan Harris, Rangana Herath of Sri Lanka and Pakistan's Mohammad Hafeez and Misbah-ul-Haq have achieved career-best rankings in the latest list, which was released after the completion of the Galle Test between Sri Lanka and Australia and the one-off Test between Pakistan and Zimbabwe in Bulawayo.
The player rankings will now be updated after the second Test between Sri Lanka and Australia, which starts on Thursday in Pallekele, while the Test Championship table will be updated after the conclusion of the third and final Test between the two sides which starts in Colombo on 16 September.