India and South Africa out to cut Australia's lead in the LG ICC Test Championship

India and South Africa could combine to cut Australia's lead at the top of the LG ICC Test Championship table to single figures over the next three weeks.

Ricky Ponting's side are currently on a rating of 128, 15 points clear of second-placed England ahead of their three-match series with the Proteas that starts in Perth on Friday, but by 22 December that lead could be reduced to 13 points.

That would happen if India wins the third Test against Sri Lanka in Ahmedabad as it would give them a 2-0 series win and lift them to second place with 115 points.

Then if South Africa manages to win their Test series against Australia by the odd Test (1-0 or 2-1) that would drop the home side's points haul to 124, just nine clear of India.

Such a win would also boost South Africa's position in the LG ICC Test Championship table as it would lift them ahead of Pakistan and into fourth place on 106 points.

Of course, a scenario like that is easier said than done. No visiting side has won a Test series in Australia since the West Indies' success in 1992/93 and in three tours there since readmission South Africa have drawn 1-1 (1993/94), lost 1-0 (1997/98) and lost 3-0 (2001/02).

If those results are hardly encouraging for the Proteas then a glance at the LG ICC Test Player Rankings is unlikely to make them feel a whole lot better.

Australia have four current players in the top 20 batting positions - Ponting (joint third), Matthew Hayden (sixth), Adam Gilchrist (11th) and Justin Langer (14th). All four have scored heavily against South Africa in the past.

Outside that top 20, at 44th spot, lies Mike Hussey who is in the form of his life. The left-hander comes into the series off the back of successive Test hundreds in Hobart and Adelaide and was not dismissed during the Chappell-Hadlee ODI series in New Zealand.

On the bowling front two familiar faces, both of them Australians, occupy the top places with Glenn McGrath (rested for the Chappell-Hadlee series) and Shane Warne ahead of the rest of the world.

With Brett Lee (25th), a bowler who has been in outstanding Test form so far during this southern summer, likely to relish the traditionally pacey Perth pitch, it all adds up to a daunting prospect for the visitors.

But it is far from all doom and gloom for them. In Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini and Andre Nel they have three bowlers in the top eleven places of the LG ICC rankings and they can also boast the top batsman in the world in Jacques Kallis.

Kallis is under an injury cloud and could be caught at the top of the batting list by Ponting or Hayden if either has an outstanding series but South Africa have two other players in the top 20 - captain Smith (joint 12th) and Herschelle Gibbs (joint 19th).

Further down the batting list, left-hander Jacques Rudolph, who made a double-hundred in the warm-up match ahead of Friday's Test, is 53rd, Mark Boucher is 60th and Pollock is 68th.

Kallis tops the LG ICC all-rounder list thanks in part to Andrew Flintoff's loss of 47 points over the last two Tests of England's recent series in Pakistan while Pollock is third. Australia's leading all-rounder is Shane Warne, outside the top five in eighth position.

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

16 - 20 December - first Test, Perth
26 - 30 December - second Test, Melbourne
2 - 6 January - third Test, Sydney

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