Sri Lanka can leapfrog India into second position in ODI ranking

Wednesday, 29 June 2011 00:15 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka has an opportunity to move ahead of India into second place in the Reliance ICC ODI Championship while England will retain its fifth position whatever the outcome of the five-match ODI series which started at The Oval on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka trails second-placed India by one ratings point but will take sole position of second place if it wins the series 4-1 or better. A 3-2 series result will put it at par with India on 119 ratings points but Tillakaratne Dilshan’s side will be placed behind Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s side when the ratings are calculated beyond the decimal point.

In contrast, England will retain its fifth position irrespective how the series pans out.

A 5-0 series loss will drop it to 102 ratings points - just two ahead of sixth-placed Pakistan - while 5-0 series win will put it along side Sri Lanka on 112 ratings points but behind the Asian side by a fraction.

Click here to use the predictor function on the rankings page of the ICC website to find out how future results could affect the Reliance ICC ODI Championship table.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka boasts two batsmen inside the top 10 of the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen with Dilshan in third place and his predecessor Kumar Sangakkara in fifth position with just eight ratings points separating the two.

Jonathan Trott is the highest-ranked England batsman in eighth position. And as he is still in his qualification period, he can potentially move further up the ladder depending how he performs in the series. Trott trails seventh-ranked Virat Kohli by one ratings point while he is just 24 ratings points behind Dilshan.

A batsman qualifies for full rating after he has had a minimum of 40 started innings. Trott has batted in each of the 25 ODIs he has played to date in which he has scored 1,280 runs at an average of just under 55.

Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya, who will retire after the first ODI at The Oval, is currently in 56th and 109th in batting and bowling positions, respectively.

The ICC Cricket World Cup winner with Sri Lanka in 1996, who will celebrate his 42nd birthday two days after his final appearance, is the second most successful ODI batsman in the history of the game after Sachin Tendulkar with 13,428, including 28 centuries and 68 half-centuries.

His 322 wickets makes him the eighth most successful bowler after Muthiah Muralidaran (534), Wasim Akram (502), Waqar Younis (416), Chaminda Vaas (400), Shaun Pollock (393), Glenn McGrath (381), Brett Lett (349) and Anil Kumble (337).

Jayasuriya first topped the batting chart in September 2002 after scoring a match-winning 102 not out against Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy opener in Colombo while his highest bowling ranking was 22nd which he achieved against New Zealand in the second quarter-final of the ICC Knock-Out Tournament in Dhaka in October 1998.

Jayasuriya’s highest batting rating of 841 points, which he achieved against Bangladesh in February 2003, puts him in 24th position on the all-time best-ever ODI championship rating list. In the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers, Graeme Swann of England is the highest-ranked player from either side in fourth position while two Sri Lanka bowlers in Ajantha Mendis and Nuwan Kulasekara figures inside the top 10 in ninth and 10th positions, respectively.