 Dubai : India may have flopped in the opening Test against Sri Lanka but opener Virender Sehwag held on to the number one spot, while Sachin Tendulkar gained a place to be seventh in the latest ICC rankings for batsmen issued on July 23.
Sehwag, who scored 109 and 31 in the Test which India lost by 10 wickets, has opened up a 14-point gap over second-placed Kumar Sangakkara. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's iconic off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who spent a record 214 Tests and 1,711 days in the number-one spot, retired from Test cricket at the third spot in the bowling chart.
The 38-year-old, who finished with 800 wickets from 133 Tests, bowed out in third position behind Dale Steyn of South Africa and Pakistan's Mohammad Asif after climbing two spots in the latest rankings following figures of 5-63 and 3-128 which set-up a 10-wicket victory for Sri Lanka in the first Test of the three-match series in Galle.
The bowlers dropping in the latest rankings include off-colour Indian pacer Ishant Sharma, who was down one spot to 22nd, Rangana Herath (31st, down six places) and Pragyan Ojha (58th, down by nine places).
In the Rankings for Test batsmen, Indian opener Gautam Gambhir, middle-order batsmen Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, and Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni have failed to retain their places. Gambhir has slipped six places to 10th position, Laxman has fallen two places to 15th position, Dravid has dropped one place to 18th place while Dhoni has fallen four places to the 40th spot. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara has swapped places with his predecessor Mahela Jayawardene.
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