Tendulkar slips out of top 20 in LG ICC Player Rankings

Sachin Tendulkar may not be involved in the current series between the West Indies and India but he is still able to make headlines, this time in the LG ICC Player Rankings.

India's leading run-scorer of all time has slipped out of the list of the top 20 Test batsmen for the first time since 1992. He now lies in 22nd position, down three places, and that fall is down to a combination of factors.

First and foremost, a player loses points - one per cent of his rating - for each missed Test and so Tendulkar's absence from the Caribbean, as he recovers from surgery on his right shoulder, obviously counts against him.

But on top of that, his Test match form in the last couple of years has been well below his career peak - he averages just 28 in his last 10 Tests compared with an overall average of 55.39 - and form has an impact on a player's rating.

And while Tendulkar's mark of 650 rating points may have been enough to put him in the top 20 in times gone by, it is not enough now with other batsmen in world cricket scoring heavily.

The good news for Tendulkar is that he appears to be regaining fitness after surgery and so, form and selection permitting, he should have the chance to regain his spot in that top 20 soon enough.

India still have two players in that elite group, captain Rahul Dravid, who remains in second place behind leader Ricky Ponting, and Virender Sehwag, down one place to 13th in the list.

Further down the batting rankings, V.V.S.Laxman has moved up two places after scores of 100 and 63 in the drawn third Test in St Kitts and he now lies in 27th position.

India also has two players in the top 20 of the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers, with Anil Kumble slipping down one spot to eighth position while Irfan Pathan, who missed the third Test, is 13th.

The bowling list is headed by Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralidaran, clear of Makhaya Ntini of South Africa and the Australia duo of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.

The West Indies has new entries into both the batting and bowling top 20s with Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Corey Collymore heading in the right direction.

Chanderpaul, who made an unbeaten 97 in the first innings of the St Kitts Test, is up five spots to 17th and that means the home side now has two players inside that top 20 with captain Brian Lara unchanged in ninth position.

Collymore remains his side's leading Test bowler in the rankings, up four places to 17th place, the only West Indies bowler inside the top 20.

Further down the list Jermone Taylor's impressive form in St Kitts, where he took four wickets, has seen him move into the top 100 for the first time, and he is up 22 places to 91st, with his best-ever haul of rating points.

Daren Ganga, who made 135 - his third Test hundred - and 66 in the third Test, has risen 20 places in the batting list to 68th position and is another player with a career-best rating, while Marlon Samuels is up 13 places to 84th spot.

Among other batsmen, Chris Gayle is 23rd and Ramnaresh Sarwan, another centurion in the drawn match, is in 30th place.

Gayle is the West Indies' leading player in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders, in joint eighth position with Australia's Shane Warne, while Irfan Pathan remains in fifth spot.

The all-rounder table is headed by Jacques Kallis of South Africa, clear of England's Andrew Flintoff.

The West Indies - India Test series is currently level at 0-0 after drawn matches in Antigua, St Lucia and St Kitts.

The final match of the series begins at Sabina Park, Jamaica, on 30 June.

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