Mahendra Singh Dhoni, whose unbeaten 76 - together with some
assistance from the weather - helped India escape from its first Test
against England with a draw, has made significant strides up the LG
ICC Player Rankings.

The dashing right-hander, who strode into bat on the last day of the
match on a pair, responded with an innings of more than three hours
and, in the process, he compiled his fifth Test fifty in 18 matches,
an overall record that also includes one hundred.

Dhoni's status in the longer version of the game may not yet match his
ODI form - he lies fifth in that batting list - but his performance on
Monday has lifted Dhoni up four places to 50th in the LG ICC Player
Rankings for Test batsmen and he now has his best-ever haul of rating
points.

And Dhoni is not the only India player to be heading in the right
direction in those rankings after the stalemate in London. Two of
India's pace attack - Zaheer Khan and RP Singh - are also on their way
up the listings for bowlers.

Zaheer has broken back into the top 20, up six spots to 19th position,
after capturing six wickets in the Test while RP Singh, whose match
haul of 7-117 included his first five-wicket haul at the highest level
(5-59 in the England second innings) climbs 13 places to 38th place.

Of course, after a match where India struggled to keep pace with
England for long periods, several others among its players have
slipped down the rankings.

Its leading bowler in the listings, spinner Anil Kumble, has dropped
three places to sixth position - the same fall as England spinner
Monty Panesar, now ninth - while seamer Sreesanth has slipped one spot
to 30th.

And, among the batsmen, although Dinesh Karthik's second-innings 60
has lifted him to joint 70th place, up eight spots, captain Rahul
Dravid (down one to ninth but still India's highest-placed batsman)
and Sachin Tendulkar (also down one, to joint 17th) have both lost out
thanks to dual failures.

For England, Kevin Pietersen remains its leading star in the firmament
after his ninth Test hundred, a typically entertaining 134 which is
also his third Test hundred in just five matches during this UK summer.

The right-hander remains in fourth place in the LG ICC Player Rankings
for Test batsmen but his efforts at Lord's have seen him gain 29
rating points to leave him within touching distance of breaking the
magical 900 point mark for a second time.

Pietersen did it earlier this summer following his double hundred
against the West Indies at Leeds but he followed that with two
relatively quiet Tests by his standards, at Manchester and Durham,
before his latest effort.

Pietersen is one of only 22 players in Test history to have cracked
the 900-point mark and three of them are now all that stands between
him and top spot in the LG ICC Player Rankings.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting heads the current list, just clear of
Pakistan's Mohammad Yousuf while Kumar Sangakkara, fresh from
successive double hundreds against Bangladesh, lies in third place.

Andrew Strauss's first innings 96 at Lord's has helped him back into
the top 20, up two spots to 20th, but Alistair Cook (21st, down one)
and Ian Bell (also dropping one spot to 22nd) are both heading the
wrong way, as is Paul Collingwood, whose first-ever Test duck has
helped to ease him down two places to 16th position.

On the plus side of England's ledger, captain Michael Vaughan is
moving upwards, climbing eight places to 31st position, while his
inexperienced seam attack is also making all the right moves in the
listings.

James Anderson, whose match haul of 7-125 included Test best figures
of 5-42 in the India first innings, has risen ten places to 42nd spot
while left-arm swing and seam bowler Ryan Sidebottom (6-107 at Lord's)
is up seven places to joint 35th position.

The bowling list is still headed by Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah
Muralidaran, now on the brink of eclipsing Shane Warne's record for
most Test wickets, with Makhaya Ntini of South Africa a distant second.

South Africa's Jacques Kallis still heads the LG ICC Player Rankings
for Test all-rounders, clear of the injured Andrew Flintoff of England.

The fact India "got out of jail" with a draw at Lord's (Dravid's words
at the post-match press conference) means it can still win the series
2-0 with victories at Nottingham and The Brit Oval.

And if it does that it will rise from its current fifth position to
third place in the LG ICC Test Championship table, just behind
England. A 1-0 series victory would elevate India to fourth and within
striking distance of Sri Lanka.

On the other side of the coin, if England wins the next two matches,
that would see India drop below Pakistan and New Zealand to seventh
spot with just the West Indies and Bangladesh below it on the table.