Tendulkar rises, Gambhir slips in ICC Test ranking

Riding on his match-saving hundred against Sri Lanka in the opening Test, senior Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar rose a rung to joint 15th but opener Gautam Gambhir slipped one place to third in the latest ICC Rankings issued on Sunday.

Tendulkar shares the 15th spot with dashing England batsman Kevin Pietersen.

Among other Indians, Rahul Dravid has jumped five places to sit just outside the top 20 in 21st position, while India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has leaped three places to 30th spot.

Former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene, who scored a double hundred in the drawn match, achieved the number one ranking for the first time in his career.

The 32-year-old scored a masterly 275 – his sixth double-century in 108 Tests – to leapfrog team-mate Kumar Sangakkara and Gambhir.

Jayawardene, who during his mammoth knock became only the ninth batsman to complete 9,000 Test runs, is just 17 points short of becoming only the 25th batsman overall to reach the 900-point mark which, in ranking terms, is the benchmark for top batsmen.

Among the Test bowlers, Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who took 2-189 in the first Test, has slipped one place to sixth in the latest rankings.

The gap between number-one ranked Dale Steyn of South Africa and Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan's has opened from 20 points to 31 points.

The ICC Test Championship table is currently led by Australia with India ranked third. Pakistan sits in sixth position on 84 ratings points with New Zealand four points behind in seventh place and the West Indies in eighth-position on 76 ratings points.