Australia in danger of losing top spot in LG ICC ODI Championship table while India can rise as high as second

Brian Murgatroyd - ICC

Ponting within touching distance of best-ever rating; Dhoni's first ODI series as captain, one of four India batsmen inside top 20; returning Dravid and Tendulkar look to break back into batting top 10

Australia's top ranking in the LG ICC ODI Championship will be under serious threat when its takes on India in the seven-match ODI series starting in Bangalore on Saturday.

Australia, which regained its number one ranking from South Africa during the ICC Cricket World Cup in the West Indies, could drop as low as third if the recently-crowned ICC World Twenty20 champions India sweeps the series.

If that were to happen, India, currently on 108 points, could gain 10 points to 118 and in the process leapfrog South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Pakistan to second, with Australia dropping from 129 to 116.

A 6-1 or 5-2 series victory for Mahendra Singh Dhoni in his first series as India's ODI captain would mean Australia losing top position to South Africa while India would move to third place in a congested table in which just nine ratings points separate third and seventh positions.

A 4-3 win would lift India to fifth while Australia would be left on the same mark as South Africa, 124 points, but would retain top spot when the ratings are calculated to three decimal places.

However, the other side of the story is that if Australia sweeps the series, India will fall as low as seventh in the ICC LG ODI Championship table. A 6-1 or 5-2 series win for Australia would result in India maintaining sixth place with Australia extending its advantage over South Africa.

Meanwhile, across the water from India, in Sri Lanka, the home side could leapfrog New Zealand into third place if it makes a clean sweep of its five-match ODI series against England, starting in Dambulla on Monday. However, if England wins every contest, it will jump ahead of Mahela Jayawardena's side.

England, which was impressive 4-3 winners in its previous outing, against India in August and September, could slip back to eighth, below the West Indies, with a 1-4 or 0-5 series loss but could also swap places with Sri Lanka if it emerges a 4-1 winner.

It all adds up to a fascinating period for the LG ICC ODI Championship table as sides look to get back into the rhythm of the longer 50-over form of the one-day game after the helter-skelter action provided by the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Australia captain Ricky Ponting will be hoping he can recover quickly from a hamstring injury that sidelined him from crucial matches in the ICC World Twenty20.

If he can do so, the 32 year-old has the opportunity to not only lead his side to success but also to achieve his career-best rating in the LG ICC ODI Player Rankings.

Ponting is a mere six points behind his best-ever mark, set against South Africa in 2006, and with England's Kevin Pietersen just 29 points behind him in second place (and set to feature heavily for England in Sri Lanka) he has plenty of incentives to find fitness and his best form in a hurry.

Ponting's team-mate Mike Hussey is certain to slide in the batting list following his withdrawal from the tour because of a hamstring injury. Nevertheless with Matthew Hayden (fourth), Adam Gilchrist (sixth) and Andrew Symonds (eighth) still on tour and also occupying top ten places, Australia is not short of batting talent.

No India batsman is in top 10 but if Sachin Tendulkar carries his form from the England series (where he scored 374 runs) then he has every chance of breaking back into that elite group.

Tendulkar currently lies in joint 12th position in the LG ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen and is one of four Indians in the top 20. Below him in that group are ex-captain Rahul Dravid (15th), Yuvraj Singh (18th) and Dhoni (19th).

Tendulkar and Dravid are returning to the India line-up after opting out of the ICC World Twenty20, as is another former captain, Saurav Ganguly, who is 43rd in the list.

England's only other batsman inside the top 20 apart from Pietersen is Ian Bell (14th), who missed out on selection for South Africa but is just one rating point of equaling his best-ever total, while captain Collingwood sits in 25th place.

As for Sri Lanka, the evergreen Sanath Jayasuriya is its top-placed batsman in 17th spot, ahead of captain Jayawardena (20th) and Kumar Sangakkara (23rd).

On the bowling front in India, Nathan Bracken's absence from the Australia side for family reasons means he will lose vital points that may affect his second-placed ranking, and he is not the only high profile bowler missing at the moment.

Sri Lanka's talismanic spinner Muttiah Muralidaran is also absent from at least the first three matches of his side's series with England as he continues his recovery from a bicep injury suffered playing county cricket in the UK for Lancashire.

Players lose 0.5 per cent of their rankings for every ODI they miss and that will mean Andrew Flintoff's position in the LG ICC ODI Player Rankings will suffer as he sits out the tour following a recurrence of a long-standing ankle injury.

Flintoff is currently England's top-ranked bowler in 10th position but James Anderson is closing in on him quickly and, after a successful ODI series against India he now lies in 14th place.

Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan are India's best bowlers, currently occupying 25th, 26th and 27th places respectively. All three have the chance to break into the top 20 with successful series against Australia.

Although Bracken is sidelined, Australia can still call on one bowler in the top 10 of the rankings, fast bowler Brett Lee, back in action after missing the ICC Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean after he suffered an ankle injury ahead of that tournament.

Ponting tops the batting list while the bowling and all-rounders' tables are headed by South Africa's Shaun Pollock.

For more information go to: http://www.icc-cricket.com/icc/rankings/lg.html

Upcoming ODI fixtures:

29 Sept - first ODI, India v Australia, Bangalore
1 Oct - first ODI, Sri Lanka v England, Dambulla
2 Oct - second ODI, India v Australia, Kochi
4 Oct - second ODI, Sri Lanka v England, Dambulla
5 Oct - third ODI, India v Australia, Hyderabad
7 Oct - third ODI, Sri Lanka v England, Dambulla
8 Oct - fourth ODI, India v Australia, Chandigarh
10 Oct - fourth ODI, Sri Lanka v England, R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo
11 Oct - fifth ODI, India v Australia, Vadodara
13 Oct - fifth ODI, Sri Lanka v England, R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo
14 Oct - sixth ODI, India v Australia, Nagpur
17 Oct - seventh ODI, India v Australia, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
20 Oct - T20I, India v Australia, Cricket Club of India, Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai

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