Pujara, Ojha climb up in ICC charts

Fresh from his match winning unbeaten knocks of 206 and 41 in the first Test win against England in Ahmedabad, Indian middle order batsman, Cheteshwar Pujara has more things to smile about as the ICC released the updated ranking list. Pujara, who was placed at 59th in the batting chart prior to the game has now sky-rocketed to 24th, a gain of 35 places.

Pujara is not the sole Indian to have made big strides. Pragyan Ojha has entered the top-5 for the first time in his career after reaping a match haul of 9/165 in the recently concluded Test. He is now placed at No. 5 in the bowling chart with 764 points.

Virender Sehwag, who made 117 in the first innings also moved up by a rung to be placed in the 22nd position.

Elsewhere, Rangana Herath, who took match figures of 11/102 in the Galle Test against New Zealand also made impressive progress as he reached a career high 828 points to be placed 4th in the bowling chart. Alastair Cook, who made a gallant 176 in a losing effort in the Ahmedabad Test also returned to the top 10 of the batting chart. He gained 4 places to be placed at No. 7 in the list.

Kieran Powell, who scored centuries in both innings of the Test match against Bangladesh at Mirpur has jumped up by 19 spots and is now raked 51st in the batting list.

Meanwhile, Jacques Kallis has replaced Bangladesh all-rounder, Shakib Al Hasan as the No. 1 in the all-rounder chart. Despite a poor outing in Galle, Kumar Sangakkar heads the batting chart in Test cricket while Dale Steyn remains the man to beat in the bowling department.

However, Hasim Amla who trails Kumar Sangakkara by just 4 points in the Test table has a chance to be the No. 1 ranked player in both Tests and ODIs with a good show during the Adelaide Test.