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Indians set to leapfrog England

ICC ranking position up for grabs

India will leapfrog England in the ICC Test world rankings if they avoid defeat in their final Test with Sri Lanka in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
The Indians will be confident they can see off the challenge of their neighbours after taking a 1-0 lead in the series with a 188-run victory in the last Test at New Delhi.

They owe much of their success to veteran spinner Anil Kumble's heroics with the ball.

He skittled Sri Lanka's batsmen in the first innings taking six wickets, and then added another four in the second including the scalp of Sri Lankan captain Marvan Atapattu for the second time in the match, ending with figures of 10 for 157.

Indian Captain Rahul Dravid was quick to praise the his whole team. He said: "Kumble was outstanding in the match but I thought it was a very good overall team effort."

But India will have to beat the Sri Lankans without their former captain Sourav Ganguly, dropped for what could be the last time through a combination of poor form and his arguments with coach Greg Chappell.

Evidently Chappell was prepared to forgive Ganguly's outbursts but not his poor form, and after knocks of 5, 39 and 40 since being recalled to the side this series the Indian management unanimously decided to drop their most successful ever captain again.

Their Chairman of selectors, Kiran More, explained: "We have been wanting to give other middle-order batsmen like Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif more chances and Ganguly can't be in the reserves."

Despite Ganguly's absence the tourists have an uphill challenge ahead of them, needing a win to avoid losing the series in a country where they are yet to claim a single Test victory.

Atapattu also has to contend with fielding a makeshift batting line-up after the Sri Lankan selectors surprisingly axed the likes of Sanath Jayasuriya and Russel Arnold for the series.

Critics and fans alike have struggled to understand why the selectors should choose a series in arguably the toughest location in Test cricket to blood younger players like Avishka Gunawardene and Jehan Mubarak.

Still, there is hope for the tourists, and Atapattu remained confident, saying: "We had our positives like (Mahela) Jayawardene's knock in the second innings and (Muttiah) Muralitharan's bowling and hope to do better in the next match."

Atapattu, at 35 and playing through a persistent lower back injury, is in good touch himself, as is the superbly gifted Jayawardene.

And in Muralitharan they have among the finest bowlers in international cricket. He produced one of the best spells of his career to claim figures of 7 for 100 in New Delhi. He is Sri Lanka's best hope to turn the tide and pull off their first victory on Indian soil.