Calcutta: England’s Monty Panesar climbed 14 places in the latest LG ICC player rankings for Test bowlers following his ten-wicket haul in the third Test against the West Indies at Old Trafford.
According to an ICC release, the 25-year-old left-arm spinner moved up from 26th position to 12th and is now closing in on a place in the top-ten with teammate Andrew Flintoff and Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar not far above him.
His match figures of 10 for187 were his best to date and included six wickets in the second innings as England won a closely fought match by 60 runs. He is now the third ranked slow bowler in the world behind Muttiah Muralidharan of Sri Lanka and India’s Anil Kumble.
Despite losing the match, there was some consolation for the West Indies. Corey Collymore moved up two places in the bowling rankings and into the top-ten. The 29-year-old seamer has been a consistent performer and the three wickets he took in the first innings at Old Trafford were enough for him to overtake Flintoff and Akhtar.
On the batting front, the main movers were Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies and England’s Alistair Cook. In an interesting symmetry, both players scored 166 runs during the Old Trafford Test, including a century and half-century each, and both moved up eight places in the rankings.
Chanderpaul holds a slight advantage in 13th position over Cook, who lies in a career-best 14th spot.
Test Rankings
Top 10 batsmen — 1. Ricky Ponting (Aus), 2. Mohammed Yousuf (Pak), 3. Kevin Pietersen (Eng), 4. Kumar Sangakkara (SL), 5. Mike Hussey (Aus), 6. Matthew Hayden (Aus), 7. Jacques Kallis (SA), 8. Rahul Dravid (Ind), 9. Younis Khan (Pak), 10. Ashwell Prince (SA).
Top 10 bowlers — 1. Muttiah Muralidharan (SL), 2. Makhaya Ntini (SA), 3. Anil Kumble (Ind), Shaun Pollock (SA), 5. Shane Bond (NZ), 6. Stuart Clark (Aus), 7. Mohammed Asif (Pak), 8. Matthew Hoggard (Eng), 9. Corey Collymore (WI), 10. Shoaib Akhtar (Pak).
Top-5 allrounders — 1. Jacques Kallis (SA), 2. Andrew Flintoff (Eng), 3. Shaun Pollock (SA), 4. Daniel Vettori (NZ), 5. Chaminda Vaas (SL).
