Dubai: Riding on the back of his superlative double century against Sri Lanka in the third test match at Mumbai, swashbuckling Indian opener, Virender Sehwag, has stormed back into the top 5 of the ICC rankings for test batsmen.

Sehwag made 293 off just 254 balls, an innings which helped India beat Sri Lanka in the final test and take the series 2-0, propelling them to the top of the ICC Test Championship table for the first time ever. His innings has rocketed him 14 places up, to the 5^th spot, which he now shares with Pakistan skipper Mohammad Yousuf.

Sehwag’s Delhi and India opening partner, Gautam Gambhir, leads the batsmen rankings followed by the Sri Lankan duo of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara at second and third respectively.

This is the first time since October 2006 that Sehwag has reached the top five in the batsmen rankings. The dashing opener gained 91 points by virtue of the breathtaking innings taking him past the 800 points mark, one of only six batsmen to have achieved that feat.

Other Indians who are also moving in the right direction are the middle order pair of Rahul Dravid (16th) — up by two places — and VVS Laxman (19th), up by one spot.

Australian vice-captain Michael Clarke, who scored 71 and 61 not out in the second test against West Indies at Adelaide, climbed one position to fourth spot while skipper Ricky Ponting dropped out of the top 10 for the first time since October 2002.

Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar has also dropped two spots to go to the 18th position after scoring 53 in his only outing on his home ground.

India’s pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, who boasted of match figures of 6-142 in the Mumbai Test, also moved up by a rung, putting him inside the top 10 bowlers’ chart. The bowlers list is still headed by South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn with Australia’s Mitchell Johnson second and Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka at third position.

Tagged with: Dubai, Gautam Gambhir, ICC, India, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Rankings, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan

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