Dhoni bags 5th spot in ODI rankings

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is India's top-ranked one-day batsman at the fifth spot among all batsmen in the world while captain Rahul Dravid slipped to 15th in the latest International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings released in Dubai.

Among the bowlers, Ajit Agarkar is the highest ranked Indian at the 12th spot with 644 points while Harbhajan Singh (618) is languishing at 17.

Dhoni moved up one place and has 736 points while England's Kevin Pietersen slipped from the top and is now in the second place with 795 rating points.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting is the No 1 batsman and is just one point short of the 800-mark.

Dravid has 711 points and Yuvraj Singh is 19th with 685 points.

Meanwhile, Shivnarine Chanderpaul has moved up four places to 13th following a remarkable series in England where he scored 202 in three matches and was dismissed just once.

There is very little movement in the top 20 of the bowler's rankings with South Africa's Shaun Pollock still out in front, Nathan Bracken of Australia in second position and Shane Bond of New Zealand in third spot.

With Pollock enjoying a rating points tally of 876, it is interesting to note he is the only player - bowler or batsman - currently standing on more than 800 points. Nine of the current top 20 batsmen have, at some point in their careers, reached that milestone but none is there at present.

Top ten ODI batsmen:

1. Ricky Ponting (Australia) 799 rating points
2. Kevin Pietersen (England) 795
3. Mike Hussey (Australia) 766
4. Matthew Hayden (Australia) 746
5. Mahendra Dhoni (India) 736
6. Ramnaresh Sarwan (West Indies) 735
7. Adam Gilchrist (Australia) 729
8. Michael Clarke (Australia) 728
9. Andrew Symonds (Australia) 726
10. Graeme Smith (South Africa) 725

Top ten ODI bowlers:

1. Shaun Pollock (South Africa) 876
2. Nathan Bracken (Australia) 794
3. Shane Bond (New Zealand) 790
4. Chaminda Vaas (Sri Lanka) 753
5. Muttiah Muralidaran (Sri Lanka) 741
6. Makhaya Ntini (South Africa) 705
7. Daniel Vettori (New Zealand) 697
8. Brett Lee (Australia) 686
9. Abdur Razzaq (Bangladesh) 673
10. Andre Nel (South Africa) 664

Top five all-rounders:

1. Shaun Pollock (South Africa) 477
2. Jacques Kallis (South Africa) 382
3. Chris Gayle (West Indies) 370
4. Andrew Flintoff (England) 362
5. Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka) 341