Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh on the flight from New Delhi to Chandigarh on Sunday. (AP)

Calcutta: As has been the case so many times this year for Australia, the team have much more at stake than just victory in the ODI series versus India.

India, who have already enjoyed guest appearances at the top of the table this year, will look to do further damage to the visitors’ confidence at Mohali where victory for Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Co. will see them replace the Aussies at No.1 in the ICC ODI rankings.

Second-placed India narrowed the gap with leaders Australia to just one ratings point after taking a 2-1 lead in the third ODI of the seven-match series, in Delhi on Sunday.

Australia arrived for the ODIs with India trailing the Champions Trophy winner’s by four ratings points but the hosts can go ahead if they win Monday’s fourth ODI. An Australian victory will mean Ponting’s side will open the gap to three ratings points.

Dhoni continues to lead the rankings for ODI batsmen but Australia vice-captain Mike Hussey has jumped three places to take second spot which sees his India counterpart, Yuvraj Singh, slip to third. Gautam Gambhir has climbed two places to 14th while teammate Virender Sehwag has dropped an equal of spots to 12th spot.

The table this week includes a subplot. Pakistan and New Zealand resume their battle for fourth place in the ODI rankings when they go head to head in the three-match series at Abu Dhabi from Tuesday.

New Zealand, who had leapfrogged Pakistan into its current position after defeating Younis Khan’s side by five wickets in the Champions Trophy semi-final, currently have 110 ratings points, one more than Pakistan. However, the World T20 champions can regain fourth place if they win the three-match ODI series.

A clean sweep, meanwhile, will see New Zealand strengthen their hold on No.4 while Pakistan will slip to seventh.

India offie Harbhajan Singh has dropped one place to share the 19th spot with New Zealand’s Jacob Oram in the list form ODI bowlers on which India fast bowlers Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Ashish Nehra are heading in the right direction, albeit outside the top 20. Kumar has moved to No.22 a gain of three places, Ishant has jumped four places to 30th and Nehra has shot 22 places to No.70.

Rankings

Teams

1. Australia; 2. India; 3. South Africa; 4. New Zealand; 5. Pakistan; 6. England; 7. Sri Lanka; 8. West Indies; 9. Bangladesh; 10. Zimbabwe; 11. Ireland; 12. Kenya

Batsmen

1. M.S. Dhoni; 2. M. Hussey; 3. Y. Singh; 4. G. Smith; 5. AB de Villiers; 6. S. Chanderpaul; 7. C. Gayle; 8. R. Ponting; 9. S. Tendulkar; 10. J. Kallis

Bowlers

1. K. Mills; 2. N. Kulasekera; 3. D. Vettori; 4. Shakib-al Hasan; 5. S. Bond; 6. A. Mendis; 7= D. Steyn, M. Muralidharan; 9. N. Bracken; 10. S. Afridi

All-rounders

1. Shakib-al Hasan; 2. Y. Singh; 3. J. Kallis; 4. S. Afridi; 5. J. Oram