Yuvraj Singh and Sreesanth during a practice session at Green Park, in Kanpur, on Sunday. (PTI)

Calcutta: Former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene, riding his double hundred in the first Test in Ahmedabad, has achieved the No.1 ranking in the latest Reliance International Cricket Council (ICC) Rankings released on Sunday.

This is the first time the 32-year-old Jayawardene has achieved this feat in his career.

Sachin Tendulkar rose to joint 15th after his century against the Sri Lankans in the same Test in Ahmedabad. Opener Gautam Gambhir, however, slipped one place to third.

Tendulkar, who hit his 43rd Test century in Ahmedabad, shares the position with England batsman Kevin Pietersen.

Among other Indian batsmen Rahul Dravid has jumped five places to No.21 while captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has leaped three places to the 30th spot.

Among the bowlers, off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who took two for 189 in the first Test, has slipped one place to sixth in the latest rankings.

The gap between No. 1 ranked Dale Steyn of South Africa and Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralidharan has opened from 20 to 31 points.

Mahela scored a masterly 275 — his sixth double-century in 108 Tests — to leapfrog Kumar Sangakkara and Gambhir.

Jayawardene, who during his mammoth knock became only the ninth batsman to complete 9,000 Test runs, is just 17 points short of becoming only the 25th batsman overall to reach the 900-point mark which, in ranking terms, is the benchmark for top batsmen.

The ICC Test Championship table is currently led by Australia with India ranked third.

RANKINGS

Teams

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

Batsmen

1. Mahela Jayawardena; 2. Kumar Sangakkara; 3. Gautam Gambhir; 4. Shivnarine Chanderpaul; 5. Mohammed Yousuf; 6. Michael Clarke; 7. Younis Khan; 8. Graeme Smith; 9. Ricky Ponting; 10. Jacques Kallis

Bowlers

1. Dale Steyn; 2. Muttiah Muralidharan; 3. Mitchell Johnson; 4. Makhaya Ntini; 5. Stuart Clark; 6. Harbhajan Singh; 7. Paul Harris; 8. Zaheer Khan; 9. James Anderson; 10. Graeme Swann

All-rounders

1. Jacques Kallis; 2. Daniel Vettori; 3. Mitchell Johnson; 4. Shakib-al Hasan Ban; 5. Stuart Broad