Lara stays fourth in world

LONDON: West Indies captain Brian Lara remains fourth on the world batting ratings list in the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) rankings released yesterday. There is no change in the batting’s top six and in spite of lukewarm performances in the Test series against Australia so far, India’s Rahul Dravid retains the top spot in the ranking for Test batsmen.  Dravid has made 0, 60 and 26 in his three innings, but holds on to the first rank primarily because Matthew Hayden, who is in second place, has not done enough to displace him.

Hayden has only made 153 runs from four innings so far.  Meanwhile, India’s Virender Sehwag’s 155 at Chennai took him to 847 points, his highest ever.  Sehwag is in third place, just ahead of Lara while Sachin Tendulkar, who is returning —  from injury —  for the Nagpur Test, is the third Indian in the top-ten, occupying seventh position.

Only two other West Indies batsmen are in batting’s top-25 —  Ramnaresh Sarwan, at 23rd, and Chris Gayle 25th. Among the bowlers, England’s Steve Harmison continues to hold to the number one position in an unchanged top-10 list that has Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralthiran at two and South African Shaun Pollock third. Pacer Pedro Collins, at 22nd, is the only West Indies bowler in the top 25.