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India can rise up to the second spot in the ICC ODI rankings if its sweeps the seven-match series against world champions Australia starting here tomorrow. Australians have regained its number one ranking from South Africa during the World Cup in the West Indies, and is in danger of droping as low as third if the recently-crowned World Twenty20 champions India sweeps the series. If that were to happen, India, currently on 108 points, could gain 10 points to 118 and in the process jump to second position, with Australia dropping from 129 to 116 to occupy third position and South Africa recaliming top spot. A 6-1 or 5-2 series victory for Mahendra Singh Dhoni in his first series as India's ODI captain would still mean Australia losing the top-position to South Africa while India could move to third place in a congested table in which just nine ratings points separate third and seventh positions. While, a 4-3 win would lift India to fifth position and the Oz would be left on the same mark as South Africa, 124 points, but would retain top-spot when the ratings are calculated to three decimal places. However, the other side of the story is that if Australia sweeps the series, India will fall as low as seventh in the Championship table. While, a 6-1 or 5-2 series win for Australia would result in India maintaining sixth place with Australia extending its lead over South Africa. Sri Lanka, could leapfrog New Zealand into third place if it makes a clean sweep of its five-match ODI home series against England, starting in Dambulla on Monday. However, if England wins every contest, it will jump ahead of Mahela Jayawardena's side. England, which won its previous outing against India 4-3 just prior to the Twenty20 World Cup, could slip back to eighth position just behind the West Indies, with a 1-4 or 0-5 series loss but on the hindsight it could also swap places with Sri Lanka if it emerges a 4-1 winner. Meanwhile, Australian captain Ricky Ponting will be hoping that he can recover quickly from his hamstring injury that sidelined him from crucial matches in the World Twenty20. If he can do so, the 32 year-old has the opportunity to not only lead his side to success but also to achieve his career-best rating in the player rankings. The Punter is mere six points behind his best-ever mark, set against South Africa in 2006, and with England's Kevin Pietersen just 29 points behind him in second place, he has plenty of incentives to find fitness and his form in a hurry. Ponting's team-mate Mike Hussey is certain to slide in the batting list following his withdrawal from the tour because of a hamstring injury. Nevertheless with Matthew Hayden (fourth), Adam Gilchrist (sixth) and Andrew Symonds (eighth) still on tour and also occupying top-ten places, Australia is not short of batting talent. No Indian batsman is in top-10 but if Sachin Tendulkar carries his form from in the England series (where he scored 374 runs) then he has every chance of breaking back into the elite group. Tendulkar currently lies in joint 12th position in the player rankings for ODI batsmen and is one of four Indians in the top 20. Below him in that group is ex-captain Rahul Dravid (15th), Yuvraj Singh (18th) and new ODI captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (19th). Tendulkar and Dravid are returning to the India line-up after opting out of the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup, as is another former captain, Saurav Ganguly, who is 43rd in the list. England's only other batsman inside the top 20 apart from Pietersen is Ian Bell (14th), who missed out on selection for South Africa but is just one rating point of equaling his best-ever total, while his captain Collingwood sits in 25th place. As for Sri Lanka, the evergreen Sanath Jayasuriya is its top-placed batsman in 17th spot, ahead of captain Jayawardena (20th) and Kumar Sangakkara (23rd). On the bowling front, Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan are India's best bowlers, currently occupying 25th, 26th and 27th places respectively. All three have the chance to break into the top 20 with successful series against Australia. For Australia, Nathan Bracken's absence from the side for family reasons means he will lose vital points that may affect his second-placed ranking, and he is not the only high profile bowler missing at the moment. Sri Lanka's talismanic spinner Muttiah Muralitharan is also absent from at least the first three matches of his side's series with England as he continues his recovery from a bicep injury suffered playing county cricket for Lancashire. Players lose 0.5 per cent of their rankings for every ODI they miss and that will mean Andrew Flintoff's position in player rankings will suffer as he sits out the tour following a recurrence of a long-standing ankle injury. Flintoff is currently England's top-ranked bowler in 10th position but James Anderson is closing in on him quickly and after a successful ODI series against India he now lies in 14th place. With Bracken sidelined, Australia can still call on one bowler in the top 10 of the rankings, fast bowler Brett Lee, who is back in action after missing the World Cup in the Caribbean after he suffered an ankle injury ahead of that tournament. South Africa's Shaun Pollock heads the all-rounders'list. ICC ODI championship table: 1. Australia (129); 2. South Africa (124); 3. New Zealand (114); 4. Sri Lanka (111); 5. Pakistan (108); 6. India (108); 7. England (105); 8. West Indies (102); 9. Bangladesh (48); 10. Ireland (28); 11. Zimbabwe (17); 12. Kenya (0). ICC top 10 ODI batsman: 1. Ricky Ponting (Aus) 799; 2. Kevin Pietersen (Eng) 770; 3. Mike Hussey (Aus) 766; 4. Matthew Hayden (Aus) 746; 5 Graeme Smith (SA) 735; 6. Adam Gilchrist (Aus) 729; 7. Michael Clarke (Aus) 728; 8. Andy Symonds (Aus) 726; 9. Ramnaresh Sarwan (WI) 724; 10. Chris Gayle (WI) 720. ICC top 10 ODI bowlers: 1. Shaun Pollock (SA) 874; 2. Nathan Bracken (Aus) 794; 3. Shane Bond (NZ) 790; 4. Chaminda Vaas (SL) 741; 5. Muthiah Muralitharan (SL) 730; 6. Daniel Vettori (NZ) 697; 7. Makhaya Ntini (SA) 687; 8. Brett Lee (Aus) 686; 9. Lasith Malinga (SL) 684; 10. Andrew Flintoff (Eng) 667. ICC top 5 All-rounders: 1. Shaun Pollock (SA) 473; 2. Andrew Flintoff (Eng) 372; 3. Jacques Kallis (SA) 370; 4. Sanath Jayasuriya (SL) 368; 5. Chris Gayle (WI) 366.
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