Misbah takes 23rd position in ICC Test rankings

KARACHI: Following his outstanding performance in the Test series against India, Pakistani batsman Misbah-ul-Haq has entered into the top-25 of ICC Test rankings for batsmen.

This is a major move as the right-handed middle-order batsman jumped from the 88th position to the 23rd after scoring 464 runs in six innings at an average of 116.

Other big mover is Sourav Ganguly who has entered into the top-20 for the first time in seven years.

The left-hander notched up two centuries, one fifty at an average of 89.00 to earn the Player of the Series award and jump four places to 20th in the ICC list.

However, Pakistan’s vice-captain Younus Khan dropped from seventh to eighth and India’s Sachin Tendulkar dropped a rung to 19th.

On the bowling front, India's Test captain Anil Kumble is relishing his time in charge and the veteran leg-spinner took 18 wickets in the three-Test series to move up two places to fifth in the bolwers list but Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar came down to 10th position.

Meanwhile, pace spearhead Irfan Pathan's maiden Test hundred has pushed him to the sixth spot in the rankings for all-rounders, behind Chaminda Vaas of Sri Lanka.

At the top, Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara and Australia's Ricky Ponting are sharing the number one position in the rankings for batsmen.

The two are locked on 936 ratings points but Sangakkara has the first chance to move ahead again when Sri Lanka and England take the field for the third and final Test of the series in Galle, starting on Tuesday.

Sangakkara, Vaas and Murali to miss Abu Dhabi series

The three-match one-day international series between Sri Lanka and Pakistan will take place in Abu Dhabi between May 18 and 22. Sri Lanka, however, will be missing Muttiah Muralitharan, Chaminda Vaas and Kumar Sangakkara who have county commitments in England.

K Mathivanan, the Sri Lanka Cricket secretary, said he had received confirmation that the series would be played from May 18-22 and that Sri Lanka would receive US$ 750,000 as participation fees from the Abu Dhabi Cricket Council (ADCC) who have organised the matches. He said Sri Lanka would leave for Abu Dhabi on May 15 and the matches would take place on May 18, 20 and 22.

The series was originally slated to begin on May 9 but Sri Lanka sought a postponement after they qualified for the World Cup final against Australia and were later stranded in London without a connecting flight to Colombo following the cancellation of flights to the capital due to air raids conducted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The team eventually arrived in Colombo on May 3.