Sachin, Dravid shift up in ICC Test rankings

Senior batsmen Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid gain a place each in the newest ICC player rankings for Test batsmen, which is being head by South Africa all-rounder Jacques Kallis.

While Tendulkar better from fifth to fourth, Dravid raised a rung to ninth from tenth position.

Among Indian bowlers, pace lead Zaheer Khan gained a place to be at sixth in spite of being ruled out of the recently completed four-match Test series between India and England after behind constrain injury on the very first day of the opening match at Lord's.

As England claimed the title of number-one Test side in the world with a 4-0 series victory, four of their batsmen made it to the top-10, with Ian Bell being the most distinguished.

Bell and Alastair Cook have jointly claim the second position after Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara slip three places to fifth after scoring only 10 and 17 in the lately completed Test against Australia.

Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott are other batsmen in the top-10. England now boasts of four bowlers and equal number of batsmen in the top 10.

Australia's Shane Watson and Ryan Harris, Rangana Herath of Sri Lanka and Pakistan's Mohammad Hafeez and Misbah-ul-Haq have achieve career-best rankings in the latest list, which was free after the conclusion of the Galle Test between Sri Lanka and Australia and the one-off Test between Pakistan and Zimbabwe in Bulawayo.

The player rankings will now be efficient after the second Test between Sri Lanka and Australia, which starts on Thursday in Pallekele, while the Test Championship table will be updated after the end of the third and final Test between the two sides which starts in Colombo on 16 September.

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'Visa issue require to be addressed'

RP Singh, who has been named as a substitute for Zaheer Khan, is yet to reach England due to a delay in obtain the visa and captain Dhoni is not amused.

Zaheer Khan is one of the three Indian players ruled out of the outstanding England tour due to a right hamstring and ankle wound. The other two are Harbhajan Singh (abdominal strain) and Yuvraj Singh (finger fracture).

India skipper MS Dhoni, though, recommended a quick-fix so that similar delays due to visa don't happen again in future.

"If we can organize visas for all 30 contracted cricketers for all the major nations (where India normally tour), this problem could have been avoid. That would mean anyone could fly in as a substitute or alternate at any given time," Dhoni told a leading daily.

The BCCI, in spite of having full a reserve list to the British High Commission, couldn't organize a visa for Singh, which adds to the agony of the Indian team that is having a horror time in England, down 0-2 in the four-match Test series.

Singh is predictable to arrive in England later on Thursday.

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Back-to-back series lead to disaster

Down 2-0 in the four-Test series and their numerous Uno statuses in jeopardy, MS Dhoni admits that a overcrowded schedule and lack of rest after the West Indies series were the factors in charge for their dismal show.

He, however, hoped that with significant amount of rest before the next Test, India will be looking forward to a rotate in the remaining two matches of the series.

"Somebody said time is of spirit here. We came straight from the Caribbean and didn't have time to play more than one (practice) game. So we are playing seven and not four matches back-to-back," said Dhoni after India suffer a severe 319-run beat at the hands of England in the second Test at Trent Bridge.

"It (this series) is a continuance of the West Indies tour and we haven't really had a gap. You need to get ready differently (for England tour). In this respect the next 10 days are very important," he added.

With Virender Sehwag set to join the squad tomorrow, and Gautam Gambhir and Zaheer Khan likely to be fit for the third Test at Edgbaston on August 10, Dhoni spoken hope of a comeback in the series.

The series so far although has been hard on India, the world's best Test side, and Dhoni admitted that his well-known batting line up needs to fire to give the visitors any hope of a turnaround.

"It's significant to score and put runs on the board. We have been slightly missing in this respect. Even in the West Indies we didn't score runs consistently. We do need development in the batting," he said.

"In all the three innings, we haven't been able to see the second new ball throughout. In circumstances such as these, it's vital. We don't want our batters from number eight onwards to be uncovered to second new ball," he said.

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