Pathan back in top 5 all-rounders after Warne quits

Dubai, Jan 17:Thanks to Shane Warne's retirement, Irfan Pathan, despite his woeful form, returns to the top five list of all-rounders in the latest LG ICC Test Rankings announced here today.

Warne, who scored a brisk 71 in his Ashes swansong at Sydney, had earlier pushed Pathan out of the elite top five league.

Pathan had a prolonged bad patch in South Africa and the left-arm seamer was sent back home midway to get his basics right even though the Baroda pacer found going quite tough even in Ranji matches.

Meanwhile, Rahul Dravid and his Karnataka statemate Anil Kumble remain the lone Indian representations in the batsmen's and bowlers' top 10 lists respectively.

Dravid, at seventh, is om fact the lone Indian in the top 20 list of batsmen, while Kumble, placed third, is joined by off-colour Irfan Pathan at 14th in the top 20 list of bowlers.

On the other hand, Ashwell Prince, who scored his sixth Test hundred in South Africa's win over Pakistan at Centurion, is now within touching distance of a place in the top 10 of the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen.

The left-hander has risen three spots to 11th position, his highest-ever placing in the list, and is now breathing down the neck of team-mate Jacques Kallis, complete with his best-ever tally of rating points.

The rise of Prince is not the only piece of good news for South Africa's players in the latest LG ICC Player Rankings.

Evergreen all-rounder Shaun Pollock, named man of the series against India, collected four wickets in the Test win against Inzamam-ul Haq's side and that has been enough to lift him to fourth position in the bowling list, his highest placing for two years.

Pollock has also been helped in his upward movement by the removal from he list of retirees Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath but he now stands just five rating points behind third-placed Anil Kumble of India.

Pollock maintains third place in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders but his haul of wickets in the first Test, together with an unbeaten 39 when he batted, ensures he has narrowed the gap to the player directly above him, England's Andrew Flintoff.

The major positive to come out of the Centurion Test for Pakistan was surely the form of Mohammed Asif, back in the side after suspension.

The fast bowler had match figures of 7-145 on a docile surface and that has been enough to propel him into the top 20 places in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers for the first time.

Asif now sits in 19th spot after a rise of nine places and it means Pakistan now has four bowlers inside that top 20 with leg-spinner Danish Kaneria and seamer Umar Gul in joint 15th position while fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, also available again after suspension, lies in ninth place.

Another absentee from Pakistan's line-up at Centurion who is now available is Mohammad Yousuf, and if he can start this year in the same way he ended the last one then he could soon be occupying top spot in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen. The stylish right-hander broke Viv Richards' 30-year old record for most Test runs in a calendar year as he collected 1788 runs in 2006 and he also claimed the record for most hundreds in this form of the game in the same timeframe by posting nine, in only 19 innings.

Yousuf lies in second place in the batting list behind Australia captain Ricky Ponting and these two are well clear of third-placed Kevin Pietersen of England.

Yousuf's team-mate Younis Khan (9th) is Pakistan's other player in the top 10, while captain Inzamam has slipped one place to 12th position. His opposite number, Graeme Smith, has dropped three places after a quiet opening to the series and is now in 21st spot.

The Australia duo of Damien Martyn and Justin Langer have, like Warne and Glenn McGrath, been removed from the listings following their retirement from Test cricket.

South Africa fast bowler Makhaya Ntini, who took 6-161 in the first Test, remains in second position in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers but he is still some distance behind runaway leader Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka. Andre Nel is the other Proteas' bowler in the top 20, although a match return of 3-169 at Centurion has seen him slip five places to 17th place in the listing.

Pakistan's defeat, by seven wickets, means it cannot now leapfrog England into second place in the LG ICC Test Championship table, even if it fights back to win the series.

Inzamam's line-up, trailing the side immediately above it by two rating points, had to beat South Africa by two clear Tests to do that.

However, with that reversal in the opening Test the best it can now hope for is a 2-1 series win and that would only be enough to move it within one rating point of England.

Ahead of both of them is Australia, which is currently 21 points clear after its 5-0 clean sweep of the Ashes series.

South Africa still retains hopes of rising up that list and if it can secure a series win by two or more Tests then it will swap places with Sri Lanka - currently four rating points ahead - and move into fifth position.

LG ICC Test Championship: 1. Australia (135) 2. England (114) 3. Pakistan (112) 4. India (107) 5. Sri Lanka (102) 6. South Africa (98) 7. New Zealand (93) 8. West Indies (72) 9. Zimbabwe (28) 10. Bangladesh (2) LG ICC Test Player Rankings: Batsmen (Top 10): 1. Ricky Ponting, Aus (936) 2. Moh'd Yousuf, Pak (924) 3. Kevin Pietersen, Eng (870) 4. Kumar Sangakkara, SL (857) 5. Mike Hussey, Aus (842) 6. Matthew Hayden, Aus (828) 7. Rahul Dravid, Ind (816) 8.

Brian Lara, WI (801) 9. Younis Khan, Pak (792) 10. Jacques Kallis, SA (788) Bowlers (Top 10): 1. Muttiah Muralitharan, SL (913) 2. Makhaya Ntini, SA (829) 3. Anil Kumble, Ind (731) 4. Shaun Pollock, SA (726) 5. Matthew Hoggard, Eng (725) 6. Shane Bond, NZ (722) 7. Stuart Clark, Aus (720) 8. Andrew Flintoff, Eng (708) 9. Shoaib Akhtar, Pak (693) 10. Corey Collymore, WI (690) All-rounders (Top 5): 1. Jacques Kallis, SA (439) 2. Andrew Flintoff, Eng (416) 3. Shaun Pollock (SA) 4. Daniel Vettori, NZ (329) 5. Irfan Pathan, Ind (254).

UNI