20 Nov 2010

Gayle vaults into top 10 after career-best ranking

12:42 pm on 20 November 2010

The West Indies opener Chris Gayle has rocketed into the top 10 of the International Cricket Council's Player Rankings for Test batsmen for the first time after stroking a magnificent 333 against Sri Lanka in the Galle Test which ended in a draw.

Gayle's second career triple century, which came off 437 balls and included 34 fours and nine sixes, lifted the 31-year-old Jamaican from 21st position to 10th spot in the latest rankings which were released today.

South Africa's top order batsmen Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla, Pakistan's Younus Khan and New Zealand's opener Brendon McCullum are the other batsmen inside the top 20 to make progress in the right direction.

Kallis, who scored 73 and 135 not out in the Dubai Test against Pakistan, has gained two places and he now sits in fourth position while Amla's efforts of 80 and 118 not out has helped him to gain four places and puts him alongside India's VVS Laxman in eighth position.

Younus, whose painstaking 344-minute 131 not out helped Pakistan to escape with a draw earlier this week, has jumped six places to 12th in the latest rankings.

He is now Pakistan's highest-ranked batsman with 19th-ranked Mohammad Yousuf out of action due to injury.

McCullum, who salvaged a draw for New Zealand in the Hyderabad Test when he scored 225, has vaulted 11 places and now sits just outside the top 20 in 22nd spot.

However, McCullum's Black Caps team-mate Ross Taylor has dropped eight places to 17th position after managing scores of 24 and seven.