Trott moves to No. 3 in ICC rankings

Saturday, 1 January 2011 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Jonathan Trott, the England top-order batsman, has climbed to third in the ICC Test batsmen rankings on the back of his unbeaten century in the fourth Ashes Test at the MCG.

Meanwhile, Zaheer Khan, India’s bowling spearhead, is up to fourth in the bowlers rankings after his six wickets against South Africa in Durban, and VVS Laxman moved up six places to ninth after his 96 in the same match.

Trott’s 168 not out, which helped England seal an innings-and-157-run victory over Australia to retain the Ashes, takes him up from tenth in the rankings to within nine points of Sachin Tendulkar.

Trott could actually overtake Tendulkar by the end of the Ashes depending on each of their performances in their next Tests.

Zaheer is now joint-fourth with England fast bowler Jimmy Anderson on 752 points, while his team-mate Harbhajan Singh moved up to eighth position after also taking six wickets in Durban.

Laxman’s current ranking is just one below his best-ever eighth place, which he occupied in 2001, after his 281 at Eden Gardens.

Alastair Cook moved up one place to 13th and Kevin Pietersen up four to 21st in the batsmen rankings after the Melbourne Test.

Australia’s top-order batsmen took a dive in the rankings, after they were bowled out for 98 and 238 at the MCG.

Michael Hussey dropped four places to 10th, Shane Watson fell two spots to 15th, Michael Clarke slipped to 24th and Ricky Ponting, who has scored just 113 runs in the four Ashes Tests played so far, moved down to 29th place, one behind England captain Andrew Strauss.

Peter Siddle, the Australia fast bowler, was rewarded for his 6 for 75 in Melbourne with a jump of six places to 11th in the bowlers rankings.

Dale Steyn, the South Africa fast bowler, is still comfortably ahead of all competitors at the top of the bowlers rankings, after he took eight wickets in the Durban Test, but his team-mate Hashim Amla dropped out of the top ten batsmen after the 87-run loss to India.