Lara snatches top spot from Kallis in LG ICC Test batting rankings

Brian Lara has returned to the top of the LG ICC Test batting rankings following his century in West Indies' win over Pakistan in the Barbados Test. He is now just two points ahead of South Africa's Jacques Kallis.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul moves up five places to eighth following his scores of 92 and 153 not out in the same match, with the result that he now has a batting ranking over 800 points for the first time in his career.

West Indies will improve its rating in the LG ICC Test Championship from 73 to 78 points if it wins the series 2-0.

For England there are small improvements in the rankings of both Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick following their centuries against Bangladesh. However, the relatively low rankings of the Bangladesh bowlers mean that the batsmen get much less credit for these scores than they would if they make centuries against Australia later in the summer.

Similarly in the bowling, wickets for Andrew Flintoff and Matthew Hoggard have slightly improved their rankings so that the two bowlers are at, or close to, personal bowling bests.

Hoggard has climbed to tenth while Flintoff shares 11th spot with teammate Steve Harmison.