Bangladesh set out to turn the LG ICC Test Championship upside down against Australia

Bangladesh will rip up the formbook if they prevent Australia from securing victory in both Test matches of their upcoming series.

A glance at the LG ICC Test Championship table confirms the gap between the two sides, with Ricky Ponting's line-up 18 points clear at the top of the table while Bangladesh are adrift at the foot.

And while Bangladesh have won just one Test match in their short history at the highest level, Australia have won nine of their last ten, against the ICC World XI, the West Indies and South Africa.

That gap between the sides appears to be a massive one and it is also reflected in the LG ICC Player Rankings with Australia dominating those standings while the home side's players are yet to make a significant impact.

The touring team have five batsmen - the top-rated Ponting, Matthew Hayden (4th), Michael Hussey (10th), Damien Martyn (11th), the injured Justin Langer (15th) and Adam Gilchrist (24th) - in the top 25 spots.

And with the ball, although they are without the second-ranked bowler Glenn McGrath for personal reasons, they still have the leading Test wicket-taker of all time Shane Warne (3rd), Brett Lee (16th), the recalled Jason Gillespie (21st) and Stuart MacGill (25th), amongst others, available.

Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar is their highest-ranked batsman in 31st spot but further down that list is Mohammad Ashraful in 62nd place. The diminutive right-hander, who scored 114 on his Test debut against Sri Lanka in 2001, made a brilliant 100 against Australia at Cardiff last year to help his side to a famous ODI win.

The leading Bangladesh bowler in the LG ICC Player Rankings is veteran left-arm spinner Mohammad Rafique (joint 36th, alongside Jermaine Lawson of the West Indies) while pace bowler Mashrafe Mortaza (40th) is set to play his first Test since June 2005 following a back injury.

Several Australia players will start the series on the brink of notable landmarks with Ponting, Gilchrist and Hayden all needing a century to complete a full set of Test hundreds against all ICC Full Members.

Hussey needs just 103 runs to reach 1000 in Tests and if he achieves that in his first innings, his 17th at the highest level, he will join Sid Barnes as the equal third-quickest Australian to reach that mark behind Donald Bradman (13) and Neil Harvey (14).

Lee needs 11 runs to reach 1000 in Tests and if he gets there it will make him just the 10th Australian to achieve the Test double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets while Gilchrist requires 32 runs for 5000 in Tests. Only 15 Australia players have previously reached that mark.

The LG ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers are headed by Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralidaran ahead of McGrath and Warne while Ponting leads the batting list ahead of Jacques Kallis of South Africa and India's Rahul Dravid.

Kallis is the leading Test all-rounder, clear of England's Andrew Flintoff (the top ODI all-rounder). Australia's highest-placed player in that list is Warne, in seventh position.

Another indication of the gap between the two sides is the fact that even if Australia wins both Tests their rating in the LG ICC Test Championship table will remain at 131 when re-calculated to the nearest whole number while Bangladesh will drop by just one rating point to 3.

The schedule for the Bangladesh - Australia Test series is as follows:

9 - 13 April - First Test, Fatullah
16 - 20 April - Second Test, Chittagong

Full details of the current LG ICC Test Championship and how future results will impact on the table, as well as the LG ICC Player Rankings can be found here