LONDON, July 16: England’s opener Marcus Trescothick has jumped from 24th to eighth in the one-day cricket rankings for batsmen, one place above Australia’s brilliant Adam Gilchrist, and one below Pakistan’s best entry Yousuf Youhana.
However, Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, England’s Nick Knight and Sri Lankan Russel Arnold have all lost ground.
The Pricewaterhouse Coopers rankings, updated after the NatWest series featuring England, India and Sri Lanka finished last Saturday, also shows that Sachin Tendulkar remains top of the tree.
There has been less dramatic movement in the bowling, with Harbhajan Singh dropping three places to seventh and Darren Gough down two to 10th.
But one clue as to why Sri Lanka may have done so poorly lies in the fact that Muttiah Muralitharan, out injured for the whole series, is still ranked the best bowler in world cricket in the shortened form of the game.
Ganguly, despite scoring a crucial 60 in the dramatic final which his team won at Lord’s, drops from third down to 10th after failing to produce enough high-class performances in the round-robin stages.
Knight, previously England’s best batsman, also had his difficulties facing the new ball and drops from 13th to 23rd equal.
Arnold, who was symptomatic of Sri Lanka’s poor batting performances, made just 79 runs in six innings and falls from 15th to 28th.—PPI