DUBAI, Aug 9: Andrew Flintoff climbed up both the batting and bowling standings in the latest edition of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test rankings issued on Tuesday following his Man-of-the-Match performance in England’s nailbiting two-run second Test win against Australia last weekend.
Flintoff’s heroics with both bat and ball moved him up ten places in the batting (to 25th) and two in the bowling (to 12th).
Already ranked as the world’s leading one-day all-rounder Flintoff is just one good performance away from moving above South Africa’s Jacques Kallis as the number one Test all-rounder.
And that performance could come as soon as the third Ashes Test, Flintoff’s 50th, which starts at his Old Trafford home ground on Thursday.
Kallis though remains top of the batting standings while Australia fast bowler Glenn McGrath, wwas still at the top of the bowling charts despite being forced out of the Edgbaston Test with an ankle injury.
Meanwhile Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne, who needs just one more wicket to become the first bowler to take 600 in Tests, remained in third place in the bowling standings but has his highest rating for three years.
England seamer Matthew Hoggard moved up to 10th in the standings with a a career-high ranking of 748 while Test team-mate Stephen Harmison dropped three places to 11th.
Leading ICC Test Rankings after second Ashes Test at Edgbaston ending Aug 7 (ranking, change, player, country, points average, highest ranking)
1 (-) Jacques Kallis RSA 886 56.87 896 v ENG at Cape Town 2005
2 (-) Brian Lara WIS 873 54.09 911 v RSA at Cape Town 2004
3 (-) Rahul Dravid IND 872 57.86 892 v PAK at Kolkata 2005
4 (-) Virender Sehwag IND 848 55.98 854 v RSA at Kolkata 2004
5 (-1) Ricky Ponting AUS 830 55.60 905 v IND at Melbourne 2003
6 (+1) Inzamamul Haq PAK 815 50.80 852 v NZL at Lahore 2002
7 (-1) Damien Martyn AUS 808 50.14 848 v NZL at Wellington 2005
8 (+1) Shivnarine Chanderpaul WIS 789 47.41 811 v SRI at Colombo 2005
9 (-1) Adam Gilchrist AUS 788 54.67 874 v RSA at Cape Town 2002
10 (-) Marcus Trescothick ENG 777 45.26 782 v BAN at Chittagong 2003
1 (-) Glenn McGrath AUS 896 21.01 914 v ENG at The Oval 2001
2 (-) Muttiah Muralitharan SRI 862 22.47 915 v Pak at Lahore 2002
3 (-) Shane Warne AUS 810 25.24 905 v ENG at Melbourne 1994
4 (-1) Chaminda Vaas SRI 788 28.92 788 v WIS at Kandy 2005
5 (-) Shaun Pollock RSA 787 22.09 909 v ENG at Johannesburg 1999
6 (-) Makhaya Ntini RSA 784 29.21 807 v WIS at Port-of-Spain 2005
7 (-) Shoaib Akhtar PAK 770 24.77 855 v NZL at Wellington 2003
8 (+1) Anil Kumble IND 766 28.24 859 v SRI at Bangalore 1994
9 (+1) Andre Nel RSA 751 25.45 759 v WIS at Bridgetown 2005
10 (+1) Matthew Hoggard ENG 748 29.72 748 v AUS at Birmingham 2005.—AFP
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.