Battle of rankings on the cards as Pakistan, Australia meet

LAHORE: Australia will need to beat Pakistan comprehensively in the three-Test series starting in Melbourne on Saturday to retain third position on the ICC Test Championship table. Australia start the series with a difference of 33 rating points against sixth-placed Pakistan and the gap means they are expected to win the series convincingly, information provided by the International Cricket Council (ICC) said. Rankings are weighed to reflect the difference. Australia will drop points in case of failure to win comfortably.
While Australia’s 2-0 win will keep them on 116 rating points and a clean sweep will earn them just two rating points; a 1-0 or 2-1 series win will drop it to 115 rating points and behind Sri Lanka when the ratings are calculated beyond the decimal point.
On the other side, Pakistan’s series win will dent Australia’s hopes of narrowing the gap with the front-runners.
A 1-0 or 2-1 series win for Pakistan will drop Australia to 110 rating points, and if the home team suffer three consecutive defeats, they will slip to 107 rating points, just two ahead of fifth-placed England who are involved in a four-Test series against South Africa.
In ICC Player Rankings for Test batsman, Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf is the highest-ranked batsman from either side. He is on fifth position, just 11 points behind Indian opener Virender Sehwag and as many points ahead of Australia’s vice-captain Michael Clarke.
Australian captain Ricky Ponting is in 14th position, his lowest ranking since October 2002. Batsmen outside the top 20 are Simon Katich (21st), Brad Haddin (28th), Kamran Akmal (32nd), Phillip Hughes (34th), Umar Akmal (36th), Imran Farhat (38th) and Marcus North (42nd). Gautam Gambhir of India heads the batting table with Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardena second and his captain Kumar Sangakkara third.
In ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers, second-ranked Mitchell Johnson will spearhead bowling responsibilities as he is the only home team bowler involved in the series inside the top 20. Just outside the top 20 are Peter Siddle on 22nd position, Doug Bollinger in 39th place and Nathan Haurtiz is on 43rd spot.
Pakistan have Mohammad Asif (fifth) and Danish Kaneria (13th) inside the top 20 while Umar Gul is on 24th position. Dale Steyn leads the bowlers chart with Muttiah Muralidaran of Sri Lanka third.
The schedule of the series is Dec 26-30,1st Test at Melbourne Jan 3-7, 2nd Test at Sydney Jan 14-18,3rd Test at Hobart