Pakistan aiming for second place in LG ICC ODI Championship

Pakistan will be aiming for second place in the LG ICC ODI Championship table when they start their series with India in Peshawar on Monday.

The home side are currently only three rating points behind second-placed South Africa and a successful series against their neighbours would go a long way towards helping them becoming Australia's closest rivals.

Pakistan's chances of gaining that second spot behind Ricky Ponting's side are bound up with South Africa's performances in the ongoing VB Series against Australia and Sri Lanka.

If the Proteas lose their last two qualifying matches and fail to make the finals of that VB Series then a 3-2 series win for Pakistan over India should be enough to take them into second place.

And if South Africa wins one of their remaining matches and reaches the final only to miss out on the silverware, then it would take a 4-1 win for Pakistan to leapfrog them.

The worst-case scenario for Pakistan would be victories in both qualifying matches for South Africa followed by success in the VB Series final. If that happened, not even a 5-0 series win for Pakistan would lift them up a place in the table.

India's incentive, aside from revenge for their 1-0 Test series loss, will be to improve their own ranking, currently fifth.

If they can win 5-0 it will be them and not Pakistan that will be snapping at South Africa's heels as that margin of victory would take them to 115 rating points while relegating Pakistan to 104.

That would be a disaster for Pakistan as it could take them out of the all-important top six places in the LG ICC ODI Championship table.

If they did slip up in that fashion then they would be facing the prospect of having to play in the preliminary round of the ICC Champions Trophy later this year, although they would still have three ODIs against Sri Lanka in late March to try and avoid that fate.*

Leaving aside all the ifs and buts, one fact is indisputable: Australia are streets ahead at the top of the LG ICC ODI Championship table. They are 16 rating points clear of South Africa and their current form suggests that margin is not going to lessen any time soon.

Pakistan have two players in the top ten of the LG Player Rankings for batsmen with Mohammad Yousuf in fourth place and captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, who missed the third Test in Karachi with a back injury, in ninth position.

Below that duo are a host of Indian batsmen. Captain Rahul Dravid is the highest-placed among them in 11th, Virender Sehwag is in 20th spot, Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Dhoni are 23rd and 24th respectively and Yuvraj Singh, fresh from a Test hundred in Karachi, is in 26th place.

Further down the list, other Pakistan players keen to make an impact with the bat in this series include Shahid Afridi (45th), Younis Khan (55th) and Kamran Akmal (63rd), the latter just short of his best-ever haul of rating points.

Three bowlers from the two sides are in the top ten places of the LG ICC Rankings, two of them from India and one from Pakistan. The highest-placed among them is Pakistan seam and swing bowler Naved-ul-Hasan in fifth position.

India's two representatives in those top ten places are Irfan Pathan in seventh place and Harbhajan Singh, who went wicketless in the Test series, in 10th spot.

Players below that trio include Ajit Agarkar (22nd), Afridi (25th), Shoaib Malik (28th), Mohammad Sami (29th), Zaheer Khan (33rd), Shoaib Akhtar (35th) and Abdul Razzaq (40th).

Razzaq is one of three Pakistan players in the all-rounders' top ten, and he is in ninth place below Afridi (8th) and Shoaib Malik (4th). India's only representative in that top ten is Pathan, in sixth position, although a solid series would be likely to see him break into the top five.

The top batsman and bowler in the LG ICC Player Rankings for ODIs is from Australia. Adam Gilchrist heading the batting list while Brett Lee leads the bowlers' table. The top ODI all-rounder is England's Andrew Flintoff.

The schedule for the Pakistan - India ODI series is as follows:

6 February - first ODI, Peshawar
11 February - second ODI, Rawalpindi
13 February - third ODI, Lahore
16 February - fourth ODI, Multan
19 February - fifth ODI, Karachi

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

* Sides outside the top six places in the LG ICC ODI Championship table on 1 April 2006 have to play in the preliminary round of the ICC Champions Trophy, with the top two sides in those qualifying matches earning the right to play in the second round of the tournament. India, as hosts, will automatically qualify for the second stage even if they are outside the top six on 1 April. If that happens, then the sixth-placed side in the table will take part in the preliminary round.