Ojha leaps nine places to No 5 in Test rankings

Indian left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha, who starred with a nine-wicket haul in the first Test against England, rose nine places to break into the top-five in the latest ICC rankings, issued on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old had match figures of 77.2-24-165-9 as India won by nine wickets in Ahmedabad to take a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.

The other Indiasn in the top-20 are pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, up one place to 14, and off-spinner R Ashwin, steady at 18).

Not a single Indian features in the top-20 of ICC's batting chart, but Cheteshwar Pujara, who struck a doubled hundred in the Ahmedabad Test, rocketed 35 places to No 24.

England captain Alastair Cook, who scored a gutsy 176 in his side's second innings, returned to the top 10 by rising four places, to seventh.

Matt Prior, on the other hand, is the fifth England batsman inside the top 20 after achieving a career-best ranking of 18.

India opener Virender Sehwag is in 22nd position after gaining a place following his 23rd Test century.

In fact, there is a significant shake-up in the Player Rankings after the conclusion of the Ahmedabad, Galle and Mirpur Tests. The second Test between Australia and South Africa, starting in Adelaide on Thursday, may lead to more changes at the top of the batting and bowling tables.

ISri Lanka beat New Zealand by 10 wickets in Galle, with Rangana Herath collecting the player of the match award, and Kieran Powell was adjudged man of the match in Mirpur, where the West Indies overpowered Bangladesh by 77 runs.

Herath achieved a career-best rating of 828 points on the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers following his match figures of 11 for 108, while Powell also earned a career-best ranking to storm up the rankings for Test batsmen.

Powell has been rewarded for becoming the first West Indian to score two centuries in a Test against Bangladesh, and eighth overall, with a jump of 19 places which has put him in 51st spot.

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene jumped six places to 13 after scoring a classy 91 in the first innings, while another Sri Lankan, Angelo Mathews's contribution of 79 runs in a 156-run sixth wicket partnership with Jayawardene has given him a career-best ranking of 28th.

New Zealand's Daniel Flynn's contributions of 53 and 20 has allowed him to improve his ranking by five places and he is now in 63rd position.

Denesh Ramdin's third career century for the West Indies vaulted him seven places to 68th position while Bangladesh's Nasir Hossain's effort of 96 and 21 lifted him from 85th spot to 69.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who scored 203 not out, has not improved his ranking but gained 27 ratings points which has put him just one rating point behind fourth-ranked Australia captain Michael Clarke.

Meanwhile, South Africa's Jacques Kallis will enter the Adelaide Test against Australia as the number-one ranked Test all-rounder, while team-mates Hashim Amla and Vernon Philander will have opportunities to top the batting and bowling tables, respectively.

Kallis has regained the number-one ranking after Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan conceded 21 ratings points and slipped one place to second position after scoring 91 runs and taking two wickets against West Indies. Also losing ground is England's Stuart Broad, who has dropped behind New Zealand's fourth-ranked Daniel Vettori.

While Kallis will be eyeing to cement his number-one spot in the Adelaide Test, Amla will be aiming to leapfrog Sri Lanka's number-one ranked Kumar Sangakkara, and Philander will have his new ball partner and number-one ranked Dale Steyn firmly within his sights.

Amla, who is already enjoying his career-best rating, trails Sangakkara by just four ratings points and a good performance with the bat will mean that he will become one of the very few batsmen to top both the Test and ODI batting tables at the same time.

Philander is 19 ratings points behind Steyn, who has been holding the number-one spot since July 2009. Philander has played a total of 11 Tests, in which he has taken 63 wickets. As such, he is still in the qualification period for bowlers as a bowler qualifies for a full rating when he reaches 100 Test wickets.

This means Philander could potentially overtake number one Steyn, depending on how both the bowlers perform in Adelaide.