India captain Virat Kohli fell out of the top-10 while Ashwin climbed the bowlers and well as the all-rounders’ chart
Sri Lankan batting legend Kumar Sangakkara ended his glorious career in seventh place while Australia captain Michael Clarke, another illustrious retiree, finished his 115-Test career in 25th spot, according to the latest ICC Test rankings, released on Tuesday.
Sangakkara, who scored 32 and 18 in Sri Lanka's 278 runs defeat to India at the P Sara Oval, first reached the No. 1 spot in the Test batting rankings in December 2007 against England after innings of 92 and 152 in Kandy.
The 37-year-old spent a total of 97 Tests and 812 days as the world's No. 1 Test batsman and was last number-one in December 2014, before losing the top spot to AB de Villiers.
His highest-ever points tally was 938, achieved on December 1, 2007, and that total is the highest-ever achieved by a Sri Lanka batsman to date and the joint sixth-highest of all-time.
Clarke surged to the top of the rankings in August 2009 and did so for the last time in February 2013.
During this period, he topped the batting rankings on several occasions (totalling 11 Tests and 70 days).
The 34-year-old is one of the 30 internationals, including eight Australia batsmen, to reach 900 points, which was incidentally his highest tally, achieved after the 2012 Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka.
Clarke’s successor, Steven Smith, reclaimed the top spot, ahead of de Villiers and Joe Root of England.
The other big movers in the latest batting rankings are India's Ajinkya Rahane (up two places to a career-high 20th), Sri Lanka's Dimuth Karunaratne (up two to 34th), England's Moeen Ali (up two to a career-high 48th), Lokesh Rahul (up 30 places to 87th) and wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha (up 15 places to 100th).
India Test captain Virat Kohli dropped out of top-10 list for batsmen. He is now placed 11th.
In the ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers, Ravichandran Ashwin's remarkable outing in the ongoing series against Sri Lanka helped him climb a place to eighth while holding second spot among all-rounders.
Australia's Mitchell Johnson gained two spots to sixth after recording match figures of four for 86 in London, while Ashwin's match tally of seven for 118 in Colombo helped the off-spinner overtake Rangana Herath into eighth place on 769 points.
The biggest mover in the bowling rankings, though, was India leg-spinner Amit Mishra, whose match haul of seven for 72 helped him move up 42 places to a career-high 39th.
Ashwin also gained ground on Bangladesh's Shakib-Al Hasan in the rankings for all-rounders and reduced the deficit on the leader to 43 points.
In the deciding third and final Test between Sri Lanka and India, which starts at Colombo on Friday, if India win the series 2-1, they will overtake New Zealand and move to fifth place. But a Sri Lanka win would see them overtake India into sixth place.
In the event of a 1-1 tie, India will remain in sixth place, four points clear of the Lankans.
