Sangakkara replaces Tendulkar at number one

Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara has regained the top spot from India’s Sachin Tendulkar in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen after the top order batsman scored an impressive 150 against the West Indies in his side’s drawn match at R. Premadasa stadium in Colombo.

The 33-year-old’s 24th Test century, which came off 216 balls and included 12 fours and one six, lifting the Sri Lankan back to the top of the rankings and forcing Tendulkar into second place.

Joining Sangakkara in the top ten are two rising batsmen in the form of South Africa’s AB de Villiers, the current ICC ODI Player of the Year, and England’s Jonathan Trott, with both players entering the top ten of the Test batsmen rankings for the first time.

De Villiers had a strong first innings with the bat against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi scoring a record-breaking 287 not out to move up eight places to fifth while Trott’s 29 and 135 not out against Australia in the first Ashes Test in Brisbane has seen the 29-year-old right-handed batsman rise to eighth position.

In the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers, India’s Zaheer Khan’s has risen to number three in the world, his highest ranking to date after figures of 4-90 against New Zealand in the second Test match at Hyderabad.

Australia’s hat-trick hero Peter Siddle and England’s Steven Finn have both climbed the rankings at the conclusion of the first Ashes Test. Siddle has risen to 14th after claiming 6-144 in the first Test at the Gabba while ICC Young Player of the Year Finn has broken into the top 20 in 19th place time after his six-wicket-haul.

There is no change in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders with South Africa’s Jacques Kallis still leading the field. However Australia’s Shane Watson has displaced England’s Graeme Swann for fifth place in the all-rounders rankings after the 29-year-old Queenslander scored 77 runs and claimed 1-96 during the first Ashes Test.