India set to climb up ICC ODI Championship table

Dubai, May 10 (UNI) With a five-wicket win over Bangladesh in the first one-dayer in the three-match series in their belt, India is all set to climb up ICC ODI Championship table.

With 11 wins from 31 matches in this form of the game, a run stretching back 13 months, Rahul Dravid's men are well off the pace, in sixth place in the table.

But in April last year India was third in that table, just three rating points behind South Africa.

A clean sweep for the touring side will see it gain one rating point and so reduce the gap between it and fifth-placed Pakistan to just three points.

One look at the LG ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers shows Bangladesh has three representatives in the top 20 places and spinner Abdul Razzaq is the highest-placed player from either side, lying ninth in the list.

Below him are veteran spinner Mohammad Rafique and seamer Mashrafe-bin-Mortaza, who share 17th spot, while India have just two bowlers inside that top 20, Harbhajan Singh (13th) and Ajit Agarkar, the seam and swing bowler, in joint 15th position (with England's Andrew Flintoff).

The batting table gives India greater grounds for confidence.

Although the touring side has no players inside the top 10 places, it does have three among the top 20, with Mahendra Singh Dhoni its top-ranked batsman in eighth spot, captain Dravid in joint 15th (with Herschelle Gibbs of South Africa) and Yuvraj Singh in 20th.

Bangladesh's best-placed player is top-order player Shahriar Nafees, once inside the top 20 but now down to 37th position after a lean World Cup.

Its only other batsmen inside the top 50 are Abdul Razzaq (41st), Aftab Ahmed (42nd) and Saqibul Hasan, joint 46th with Australia's Simon Katich and Saurav Ganguly, who has been left out of India's squad for the ODI series.

Also absent from the squad is Sachin Tendulkar, currently 23rd in the batting list.

That list is headed by England's Kevin Pietersen, clear of the Australia duo of Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey and Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka.

Former South Africa captain Shaun Pollock is a long way ahead in the bowling table, clear of Nathan Bracken of Australia and New Zealand's Shane Bond, who has slipped into third position following the retirement of Glenn McGrath.

UNI