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India's 1-0 series loss to Pakistan cost them the coveted status of second-best Test team in the world, in the latest LG ICC Test rankings.
Greg Chappell's men slipped down to third place after losing the third Test and series against Pakistan in Karachi on Wednesday.
The huge 341-run defeat cut India's rating points from 115 to 111 and dropped them to third place below England, who have 113 points.
Australia are way ahead at the top with 129 points.
For Pakistan, the series triumph not only made amends for the 2-1 home defeat at the hands of their archrivals two years ago, but also boosted their rating in the Test Championship table.
Although they haven't moved up and remain in fourth position, Pakistan still gained five rating points because of the victory and now have 108 points, just three behind India.
India held the second spot in the ICC Test Championship table for just over a month, having assumed that position in late December after a 2-0 series win against Sri Lanka, coupled with England's 2-0 drubbing in Pakistan.
However, India can draw solace from the fact that they will not have to wait for long to regain the second spot as they face Michael Vaughan's side in March in a three-match Test series at home.
Pakistan are also now very much in the battle for second place as they have a series against Sri Lanka in March.
In the ICC Player Rankings, India skipper Rahul Dravid's twin failures in Karachi cost him a place among the top five batsmen.
Dravid is now in sixth place and although he remains India's top-ranked batsman, his rating and ranking is his lowest in two years.
Dravid is not the lone Indian batsmen to slip down the rankings. Despite a double century at Lahore, Virender Sehwag is down two places to ninth while Sachin Tendulkar slips one rung to 12th and VVS Laxman has gone two notches down to 23rd.
India's one ray of light in the batting listings is Yuvraj Singh, who scored his second Test hundred in Karachi.
Yuvraj moved up 23 places and is now joint-44th (along with Pakistan opener Salman Butt), the first time in the top 50.
Pakistan retained three batsmen in the top ten places, with Inzamam-ul Haq, who missed the third Test with a back injury, in fifth place, along with Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf.
India's nemisis in the just-concluded Test series, stand-in skipper Younis Khan, who was adjudged the man of the series, moves up one rung to seventh, while Mohammed Yousuf
jumped a place to eighth. Both players are close to their career-best haul of rating points.
The Pakistan-India series was something of a graveyard for bowlers and at the end of it, only one player from either side -- Shoaib Akhtar, in seventh -- is in the top ten.
LG ICC Test Championship (after the Pakistan v India series)
| Rank/Team | Rating |
| 1 Australia | 129 |
| 2 England | 113 |
| 3 India | 111 |
| 4 Pakistan | 108 |
| 5 New Zealand | 100 |
| 6 South Africa | 99 |
| 7 Sri Lanka | 96 |
| 8 West Indies | 73 |
| 9 Zimbabwe | 27 |
| 10 Bangladesh | 5 |
Batsmen
| Rank | +/- | Player | Team | Points | Avge | HS Ranking |
| 1 | ( - ) | Ricky Ponting | Aus | 922 | 57.71 | 922 v SA at Sydney 2006 |
| 2 | ( - ) | Jacques Kallis | SA | 888 | 57.24 | 896 v Eng at Cape Town 2005 |
| 3 | ( - ) | Brian Lara | WI | 874 | 53.86 | 911 v SA at Cape Town 2004 |
| 4 | (+2) | Matthew Hayden | Aus | 858 | 54.17 | 935 v Eng at Brisbane 2002 |
| 5 | ( - ) | Inzamam-ul-Haq | Pak | 856 | 51.72 | 870 v Eng at Lahore 2005 |
| 6 | (-2) | Rahul Dravid | Ind | 825 | 57.65 | 892 v Pak at Kolkata 2005 |
| 7 | (+1) | Younis Khan | Pak | 807 | 48.43 | 822 v Ind at Faisalabad 2006 |
| 8 | (+1) | Mhd Yousuf | Pak | 793 | 50.75 | 797 v Ind at Faisalabad 2006 |
| 9 | (-2) | Virender Sehwag | Ind | 777 | 54.75 | 854 v SA at Kolkata 2004 |
| 10 | ( - ) | M.E.Trescothick | Eng | 768 | 45.47 | 818 v Pak at Multan 2005 |
| 11 | (+1) | S.Chanderpaul | WI | 711 | 45.94 | 811 v SL at Colombo (SSC) 2005 |
| 12 | (-1) | S.R.Tendulkar | Ind | 705 | 56.14 | 898 v Zim at Nagpur 2002 |
| 13 | ( - ) | M.Jayawardene | SL | 699 | 47.80 | 836 v Eng at Birmingham 2002 |
| 14 | ( - ) | H.H.Gibbs | SA | 692 | 46.82 | 825 v WI at Centurion 2004 |
| 15 | ( - ) | Andrew Strauss | Eng | 690 | 46.31 | 769 v SA at Johannesburg 2005 |
| 16 | ( - ) | Adam Gilchrist | Aus | 687 | 50.18 | 874 v SA at Cape Town 2002 |
| 17 | ( - ) | Justin Langer | Aus | 686 | 45.72 | 780 v SA at Sydney 2002 |
| 18 | ( - ) | Damien Martyn | Aus | 676 | 47.96 | 848 v NZ at Wellington 2005 |
| 19 | ( - ) | Graeme Smith | SA | 674 | 51.54 | 756 v NZ at Wellington 2004 |
| 20 | ( - ) | K.C.Sangakkara | SL | 668 | 46.60 | 813 v Pak at Lahore 2002 |
Bowlers
| Rank | +/- | Player | Team | Points | Avge | HS Ranking |
| 1 | ( - ) | Glenn McGrath | Aus | 853 | 21.55 | 914 v Eng at The Oval 2001 |
| 2 | ( - ) | M.Muralitharan | SL | 845 | 22.47 | 915 v Pak at Lahore 2002 |
| 3 | ( - ) | Shane Warne | Aus | 842 | 25.15 | 905 v Eng at Melbourne 1994 |
| 4 | ( - ) | Andrew Flintoff | Eng | 781 | 31.51 | 810 v Pak at Multan 2005 |
| 5 | ( - ) | Makhaya Ntini | SA | 778 | 29.22 | 807 v WI at Port-of-Spain 2005 |
| 6 | ( - ) | Chaminda Vaas | SL | 775 | 28.81 | 800 v Ind at Chennai 2005 |
| 7 | ( - ) | Shoaib Akhtar | Pak | 766 | 25.69 | 855 v NZ at Wellington 2003 |
| 8 | ( - ) | Andre Nel | SA | 763 * | 26.22 | 763 v Aus at Sydney 2006 |
| 9 | ( - ) | Shaun Pollock | SA | 742 | 22.76 | 909 v Eng at Johannesburg 1999 |
| 10 | ( - ) | Matt' Hoggard | Eng | 730 | 30.07 | 762 v Aus at The Oval 2005 |
| 11 | ( - ) | Anil Kumble | Ind | 705 | 28.87 | 859 v SL at Bangalore 1994 |
| 12 | (+3) | Irfan Pathan | Ind | 699 * | 29.55 | 761 v SL at Delhi 2005 |
| 13 | (-1) | Shane Bond | NZ | 696 * | 20.80 | 696 v Zim at Bulawayo 2005 |
| 14 | ( - ) | Steve Harmison | Eng | 679 | 28.72 | 875 v WI at The Oval 2004 |
| 15 | (-2) | Danish Kaneria | Pak | 662 | 31.61 | 723 v Eng at Multan 2005 |
| 16 | ( - ) | Shabbir Ahmed | Pak | 615 * | 23.03 | 647 v Eng at Multan 2005 |
| 17 | (+1) | Simon Jones | Eng | 606 * | 28.22 | 631 v Aus at Nottingham 2005 |
| 18 | (-1) | Harbhajan Singh | Ind | 605 | 29.71 | 765 v NZ at Wellington 2002 |
| 19 | ( - ) | Jason Gillespie | Aus | 604 | 26.61 | 812 v NZ at Adelaide 2004 |
| 20 | ( - ) | Corey Collymore | WI | 600 * | 31.36 | 600 v Aus at Adelaide 2005 |
| Rank | Player | Country | Points |
| 1 | Jacques Kallis | SA | 496 |
| 2 | Andrew Flintoff | Eng | 454 |
| 3 | Shaun Pollock | SA | 340 |
| 4 | Irfan Pathan | Ind | 299 */* |
| 5 | Daniel Vettori | NZ | 279 |