Gambhir, who won the ICC Test Player of Year award at the LG ICC Awards in Johannesburg in October, scored 167 and featured in a 233-run first wicket stand with Virender Sehwag who himself has climbed four places to return to the top 20 in 19th place.
Gambhir had first surged to the top of the batting table in July but lost his position a month later to Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara. The New Delhi-born left-hander had entered the Test series in second place and had dropped to third after the first Test in Ahmedabad.
Gambhir’s leap has pushed the Sri Lanka duo of Mahela Jayawardena and Sangkkara into second and third positions respectively.
The West Indies left-hander Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s double failure in the Brisbane Test has dropped him four places to eighth and has moved Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf, Australia’s Michael Clarke, Younis Khan of Pakistan and South Africa captain Graeme Smith up by one places each.
The biggest mover in the latest player rankings which were released on Saturday is Ross Taylor of New Zealand.
The 25-year-old from Wellington scored 94 and 59 in the Black Caps’ 32 runs victory over Pakistan in the Dunedin Test and has been rewarded with a jump of seven places. Taylor now sits in a career-best 17th position.
Also moving in the right direction are Rahul Dravid, whose 28th career century has helped him rise three places to 18th, Daniel Vettori 25th (up by three places), Kamran Akmal 31st (up by four places), Marcus North 35th (up by four places) and Yuvraj Singh 44th (up by three places).
The players failing to retain their positions include Sachin Tendulkar 16th (down by one place), VVS Laxman 20th (down by one place), Simon Katich 21st (down by one place), Ramnaresh Sarwan 22nd (down by five places), Mike Hussey 23rd (down by two places), Tillakaratne Dilshan 24th (down by six places), Chris Gayle 28th (down by four places), Mahendra Singh Dhoni 32nd (down by two places), Shoaib Malik 40th (down by two places) and Dwayne Bravo 45th (down by three places).
In the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers, Sri Lanka’s iconic spinner Muttiah Muralidaran has dropped to third position. The 37-year-old from Kandy, who now has 788 Test wickets, had slipped from the top of the ladder for the first time in three years in July and now trails number-one ranked Dale Steyn of South Africa by 130 points.
Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson has taken advantage of Muralidaran’s bad form and his own good performance to rise to second. The 28-year-old Queenslander took 4-110 in the Brisbane Test.
Also returning to the ranking table are fast bowlers Shane Bond of New Zealand and Pakistan’s Mohammad Asif. Bond is back in seventh position after match figures of 8-153 which earned him the player of the match award while Asif has reappeared in the chart in ninth place after recording figures of 8-151.
S.Sreesanth, who was player of the match in Kanpur, has also returned to the rankings in 30th position after recording match figures of 6-122.
