Australian batsmen fill top four places

Following impressive performances in the VB Series, four Australian batsmen occupy the top spots in the latest ICC ODI rankings. This is the first time since the inception of the system that players from one country have dominated places one to four.

Adam Gilchrist leads the pack followed by Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke. Michael Hussey, recently voted Australia's One-Day Player of the Year, achieved his highest ranking at seventh.

For India, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar found themselves in the top ten, with Dhoni climbing nine places to eighth while Tendulkar climbed 11 spots to occupy 10th spot after a consistent run of scores in the ODI series in Pakistan.

In the bowling department, Brett Lee's failure to take a wicket in the best-of-three finals of the VB Series pushed him to second behind Shaun Pollock. Glenn McGrath's absence in the finals hasn't altered his ranking while Irfan Pathan occupies a career-high fourth. Muttiah Muralitharan remains at No. 5, despite being hammered at Sydney for the most expensive figures in a ten-over ODI spell.

Australia have a 19-point lead over South Africa while Sri Lanka are seventh place, tied on 108 with England. Both teams will battle to avoid being relegated to playing the preliminary round of matches in the Champions Trophy in India later this year. Sri Lanka have three ODIs against Bangladesh to try and boost their ranking while England have only two matches, against India, before the cut-off date. India, the hosts, will automatically qualify for the second stage, irrespective of their ranking at the cut-off date.

Click here for the full list of the rankings in the ICC's official website.