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India’s chance to improve rankings

CRICKET / Clean sweep can take it to 4th spot

— Photo: AFP

IN RIGHT EARNEST: Team India’s skipper Rahul Dravid would be hoping to win all the matches in the tri-nation tournament involving Ireland and South Africa to push up India’s ranking in the ODI’s.

Dubai: Currently languishing at the sixth place, thanks to its World Cup flop show, Team India can move up to fourth in the ICC cricket rankings with a clean sweep in the forthcoming ODIs against Ireland, South Africa and Pakistan over the next fortnight.

Rahul Dravid’s side, which reached Belfast on Wednesday on an 80-day tour of UK, can leap-frog Sri Lanka and Pakistan if it wins all of its five matches during the tour of Ireland and Scotland.

Clean slate

A clean slate would put the Men in Blue on 111 rating points, just two behind New Zealand in third position and one ahead of Pakistan, which would drop to 110 rating points.

Any reversal, however, might see India drop below England to seventh position, which would be the lowest it has been in the ODI Championship since April 2005.

With just 14 rating points separating New Zealand in third position and the West Indies in eighth, there are opportunities coming up for several other teams to make their impression on the LG ICC ODI Championship.

The West Indies will overtake the English if it wins 2-0 or 3-0. England, meanwhile, will have its sights set on sixth spot with a good showing there.

England can rise further still as it is set to play seven ODIs against India in August and September, according to an ICC statement here on Thursday.

Aussies still on top

Australia still tops the log, six rating points clear of South Africa in second spot but Jacques Kallis’s men can reduce that gap to four by beating Ireland once and India three times in Belfast.

If the Irish can pull off victories at home to India and South Africa, it will gain 14 rating points, putting real pressure on Bangladesh in ninth spot.

Individually, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, in his first series as vice-captain, will want to keep up his recent run of fine form, and a good showing in the trip to Belfast and Glasgow would put him ahead of Mike Hussey and at third spot in the rankings for ODI batsmen.

There is also a chance for Kallis to get back into the top-10 while there will also be opportunities for the likes of Rahul Dravid, South Africans Herschelle Gibbs and AB de Villiers and West Indians Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Chris Gayle to make further advances.

De Villiers is now ranked in 18th position, having been 77th just one year ago so he will want to make sure that the trend continues while his absent captain Graeme Smith will not have the chance to improve on his position of seventh as he is still recovering from a knee surgery. — PTI

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