Pietersen up to third in rankings

Kevin Pietersen © Getty Images

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England batsman Kevin Pietersen has risen to third in the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen thanks to his outstanding recent form against Australia.

The 26-year-old has been a consistent performer in the current Ashes series, making 398 runs in six innings at an average of 79.60.

This included equalling his career-best Test score of 158 in the second Ashes Test in Adelaide.

Pietersen has moved above India captain Rahul Dravid and the only players now ahead of him are Australia captain Ricky Ponting in first position and Pakistan run machine Mohammed Yousuf in second spot.

Pietersen’s England team-mates Ian Bell and Alastair Cook have also moved up the Test batting rankings to 18th and 19th places respectively thanks to recent big innings against Australia.

Bell has made three fifties in the Ashes series and Cook scored his first century against Australia in the third Test in Perth.

Paul Collingwood has dropped one place to 14th despite hitting his career best Test score of 206 in the second Ashes Test and Andrew Strauss remains in 15th place.

Pietersen has also become the highest rated England batsman for more than 40 years and the seventh highest of all time, according to the latest LG ICC Test Player Rankings.

He is just one point behind Wally Hammond whose career-best rating came during the 1933 tour of New Zealand that followed the Bodyline series in Australia.

The Hampshire batsman’s rating of 896 is still some way behind top-ranked England batsman Len Hutton whose career-best rating of 945 came against the West Indies in March 1954.