Australia leads world cricket rankings

[Teegy]

from SMH.com.au

On the eve of its Test series against Sri Lanka, India is breathing down England's neck in the world rankings.

A winning series could be enough to take India into second place in the ICC Test Championship table - their highest in the four-and-a-half years since the official ICC Test Championship was launched in May 2001.

Should India secure a 2-0 win in their three-match series it would move ahead of England unless Michael Vaughan's men were victorious in the current Test against Pakistan in Lahore.

But if England lose that Test then Rahul Dravid's side need only to win the Sri Lanka series 1-0 or 2-1 to take second spot.

A 3-0 success would lift India to 116 points, just 12 points behind current leader Australia.

Sri Lanka has its own incentive to do well in the series that begins in Chennai on Friday, and not just because the side is still smarting from a 6-1 loss in the one-day series against India in October and November.

Even a drawn series will take Sri Lanka into fourth place above South Africa and New Zealand in a congested middle section of the table.

If the Sri Lankans were to win 3-0 they would even leapfrog India into third spot while a 2-0 success would draw the two sides level on 106 points.

[Dakink]

Shows it takes more than 1 series win to become the worlds#1 nation. Hope the ppommy press read that.

[Steelers]

Well just look at their performance in the test against Pakistan

[Ipswich Fan]

It would be a real blow to England if they slipped to 3rd. To be the world's best you must be able to win on all sorts of pitches & England obviously haven't developed that skill yet.