Mahendra Singh Dhoni, whose unbeaten 76 -- together with some assistance from the weather -- helped India escape from its first Test against England with a draw, has made significant strides up the LG ICC Player Rankings.
The dashing right-hander, who strode into bat on the last day of the match on a pair, responded with an innings of more than three hours and, in the process, he compiled his fifth Test fifty in 18 matches, an overall record that also includes one hundred.
Dhoni's status in the longer version of the game may not yet match his ODI form -- he lies fifth in that batting list -- but his performance on Monday has lifted him up four places to 50th in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen and he now has his best-ever haul of rating points.
And Dhoni is not the only India player to be heading in the right direction in those rankings after the stalemate in London.
Two of India's pace attack -- Zaheer Khan and R P Singh -- are also on their way up the listings for bowlers.
Zaheer has broken back into the top 20, up six spots to 19th position, after capturing six wickets in the Test while R P Singh, whose match haul of 7-117 included his first five-wicket haul at the highest level (5-59 in the England second innings) climbs 13 places to 38th place.
Of course, after a match where India struggled to keep pace with England for long periods, several others among its players have slipped down the rankings.
Its leading bowler in the listings, spinner Anil Kumble, dropped three places to sixth position -- the same fall as England spinner Monty Panesar, now ninth -- while seamer Sreesanth slipped one spot to 30th.
And, among the batsmen, although Dinesh Karthik's second-innings 60 lifted him to joint 70th place, up eight spots, captain Rahul Dravid (down one to ninth but still India's highest-placed batsman) and Sachin Tendulkar (also down one, to joint 17th) have both lost out thanks to dual failures.
For England, Kevin Pietersen remains its leading star in the firmament after his ninth Test hundred, a typically entertaining 134 which is also his third Test hundred in just five matches during this UK summer.
The right-hander remains in fourth place in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen but his efforts at Lord's have seen him gain 29 rating points to leave him within touching distance of breaking the magical 900 point mark for a second time.
Pietersen did it earlier this summer following his double hundred against the West Indies at Leeds but he followed that with two relatively quiet Tests by his standards, at Manchester and Durham, before his latest effort.
He is one of only 22 players in Test history to have cracked the 900-point mark and three of them are now all that stands between him and top spot in the LG ICC Player Rankings.
Australia captain Ricky Ponting heads the current list, just clear of Pakistan's Mohammad Yousuf while Kumar Sangakkara, fresh from successive double hundreds against Bangladesh, lies in third place.
Andrew Strauss's first innings 96 at Lord's has helped him back into the top 20, up two spots to 20th, but Alistair Cook (21st, down one) and Ian Bell (also dropping one spot to 22nd) are both heading the wrong way, as is Paul Collingwood, whose first-ever Test duck has helped to ease him down two places to 16th position.
On the plus side of England's ledger, captain Michael Vaughan is moving upwards, climbing eight places to 31st position, while his inexperienced seam attack is also making all the right moves in the listings.
James Anderson, whose match haul of 7-125 included Test best figures of 5-42 in the India first innings, has risen ten places to 42nd spot while left-arm swing and seam bowler Ryan Sidebottom (6-107 at Lord's) is up seven places to joint 35th position.
The bowling list is still headed by Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralidaran, now on the brink of eclipsing Shane Warne's record for most Test wickets, with Makhaya Ntini of South Africa a distant second.
South Africa's Jacques Kallis still heads the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders, clear of the injured Andrew Flintoff of England.
The fact India "got out of jail" with a draw at Lord's (Dravid's words at the post-match press conference) means it can still win the series 2-0 with victories at Nottingham and The Brit Oval.
And if it does that it will rise from its current fifth position to third place in the LG ICC Test Championship table, just behind England. A 1-0 series victory would elevate India to fourth and within striking distance of Sri Lanka.
On the other side of the coin, if England wins the next two matches, that would see India drop below Pakistan and New Zealand to seventh spot with just the West Indies and Bangladesh below it on the table.
The complete rankings: http://www.icc-cricket.com/icc/rankings/lg.html
