Pakistan the main beneficiary of annual update of LG ICC Test Championship table

Pakistan is the main beneficiary of the annual update of the LG ICC Test Championship table.

It has moved above England into second place and is now just 10 rating points behind leaders Australia after a succession of excellent series results in the recent past with victories against England, India and Sri Lanka.

And if Inzamam-ul-Haq's side can win all four of its upcoming Tests against England it will close to within three points of the top side.

The annual update is carried out to ensure the LG ICC Test Championship table continues to reflect recent form with older results being discarded.

The new table no longer reflects series concluded before 1 August 2003 and that also benefits Pakistan as it means losing series in 2002/03 against Australia (3-0) and South Africa (2-0) no longer feature in the calculations.

The rankings of most of the other teams are largely unchanged by the update although New Zealand and South Africa's ratings have suffered as strong performances in series in 2002/03 are no longer counted.

Those series are, for South Africa, wins over Bangladesh (twice, 2-0 each time), Sri Lanka (2-0) and Pakistan (2-0) and for New Zealand its 2-0 win over India and its 0-0 draw in Sri Lanka.

The upcoming England - Pakistan series offers the visitors the chance to close that gap to leaders Australia but it also gives the home side the chance to regain second place.

If England wins the series, it will move back above Pakistan while a 4-0 home success would move it to within 10 points of Australia and drop Pakistan into fourth place, below India.

Both sides are struggling with injuries to key bowlers ahead of the series with England missing Simon Jones, Ashley Giles, Andrew Flintoff and James Anderson and also facing up to the possibility of being without Matthew Hoggard, who cut his bowling hand in a freak accident over the weekend.

But Pakistan is barely better off as it is missing Shoaib Ahktar and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and has injury clouds hovering over Mohammad Sami and Mohammad Asif.

Hoggard is the highest-placed player on either side in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers, in fifth place. Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria lies in 13th spot while Stephen Harmison, fit again after missing the Sri Lanka Test series with a leg injury, is 17th.

On the batting front, however, Pakistan looks like it has an edge with three players - Inzamam (4th), Younis Khan (6th) and Mohammad Yousuf (joint 7th with Australia's Michael Hussey) - in the top ten of the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen.

England's top-ranked batsman is Kevin Pietersen in ninth spot, fit again after missing two ODIs against Sri Lanka with bruising to his left knee, while Marcus Trescothick is 11th and acting captain Andrew Strauss lies 14th.

Flintoff, who is on the comeback trail after missing the ODI series against Sri Lanka with an ankle injury, is second in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders behind Jacques Kallis of South Africa.

Pakistan's leading Test all-rounders are Shahid Afridi (11th) and Abdul Razzaq (12th).

The batting list is headed by Australia's Ricky Ponting, clear of Rahul Dravid of India, while Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralidaran is the leading bowler ahead of fast bowler Makhaya Ntini of South Africa.

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.