Indians climb the rungs in ODI rankings

India's crushing 6-1 success in their ODI series against Sri Lanka has brought them to within touching distance of a host of sides ranked above them in the LG ICC ODI Championship.

The wins have lifted India's rating to 107 points, just one behind sixth-placed New Zealand and only two behind Sri Lanka and England, which occupy fourth and fifth spots on the table.

A clean sweep in their next engagement, a five-match series against South Africa starting at Hyderabad on November 16, will lift them to 114 points, overtaking all the above-mentioned sides plus the South Africans (who will slip to110 points), and into third place with only Pakistan and Australia ahead of them.

A 4-1 success for India in that series would raise their tally to 112 points and cut South Africa's to 113, while even a 3-2 success for the home team would take them above New Zealand, England and Sri Lanka, to 110 points (South Africa would drop to 117).

For South Africa, a 3-2 success would see them maintain their current rating of 120, (under that scenario India would rise one point, to 108), a 4-1 win would lift them to 123 points (India would slip to 106) and a 5-0 clean sweep would take Graeme Smith's side to 127 points (India 103), just nine points short of leaders Australia.

India's wins over Sri Lanka have been a triumph not just for the team but also for several individuals, who have surged up the LG ICC Player Rankings.

Dravid has moved up 18 places during the series and is now India's top-rated batsman and is close to his highest-ever rating, while Sachin Tendulkar has also returned to the top ten, in joint ninth spot, after his long-term elbow injury.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's brilliant performance against Sri Lanka has lifted him into the 16th place in batting rankings © Getty Images

Mahendra Dhoni has smashed into the top 20 for the first time on the back of his outstanding form, climbing a whopping 38 places from the start of the series, and he now occupies 16th place in the batting listings. Below that trio is Virender Sehwag (25) while Yuvraj Singh has moved up to 31 in the table and is now just short of his best-ever rating.

The news is just as good for India with the ball. Irfan Pathan has moved up to tenth place, and they have two other bowlers, Harbhajan Singh (13) and Ajit Agarkar (16th), in the top 20 with Agarkar also closing in on his best-ever rating.

For Sri Lanka, the news is not quite as good. They now have just one batsman, Kumar Sangakkara, in the top ten, with Marvan Atapattu sliding nine places to 18 while Sanath Jayasuriya, dropped from the Test squad, has also dropped out of the top 20 and is now 23rd in the batting listings.

Among the bowlers, Muttiah Muralitharan is still in third spot but Chaminda Vaas has dropped to ninth in the listings.