Sangakkara Loses Top Spot

Chanderpaul - new number one.

West Indies left-hander Shivnarine Chanderpaul has taken over as the top batsman in the ICC's Test Player rankings after taking advantage of a slump from Kumar Sangakkara.

Chanderpaul takes top spot for the first time in his career having averaged 91 runs in Tests against Australia, South Africa in Sri Lanka during the last year - one of the few positives for the West Indies as they lost five of eight of those Tests.

However, the more immediate cause of Chanderpaul's elevation is Sangakkara's recent disappointing play.

He has surrendered top spot after managing only 12 on the batting-friendly surface in Colombo last week even as his team-mates racked up a first-innings score of 600 for six declared against India.

Chanderpaul now has 890 points compared to Sangakkara's 882, a tiny margin that Sangakkara could overhaul with a decent performance in the second Test which starts in Galle on Thursday.

Sangakkara's team-mate Muttiah Muralitharan remains top of the bowlers' rankings after the master spinner returned figures of 11 for 110 against India, claiming man-of-the-match honours.

The performance has pushed Muralitharan over 900 points, a feat achieved by only 19 players in 131 years of Test cricket.