England still not top of rankings

England celebrate their Ashes success at The Oval

England's Ashes triumph over Australia has seen them close the gap over their old rivals to a mere eight points in the ICC Test Championship.

Australia are still ranked the number one team, but have dropped to 127 points, while England have risen to 119, ahead of third place India on 111.

All-rounder Andrew Flintoff, who took 24 wickets in the Ashes series, rose to number seven in the bowling rankings.

Andrew Strauss leapt to ninth in the batting, with Kevin Pietersen at 24.

The only way England could have usurped the Australians this summer was to have beaten them 5-0, but more progress can be made on winter tours to the sub-continent.

They go to Pakistan in late October for three Tests and five one-day internationals, and after Christmas tour India for three more Tests.

But even if England win all three Tests in Pakistan, Australia will still end the year as number one unless they lose at home to the lowly West Indies.

However, England now have the highest rating of any side other than Australia since a new system of calculation was introduced in June 2003.

---

Test Championship:
1 Australia 127
2 England 119
3 India 111
4 South Africa 100
5 New Zealand 100
6 Sri Lanka 98
7 Pakistan 95
8 West Indies 74
9 Zimbabwe 28
10 Bangladesh 6

Batsmen:
1 Jacques Kallis SA 2 Brian Lara WI 3 Rahul Dravid Ind 4 Virender Sehwag Ind 5 Ricky Ponting Aus 6 Inzamam-ul-Haq Pkn 7 Shivnarine Chanderpaul WI 8 Marcus Trescothick Eng 9 Andrew Strauss Eng 10 Graeme Smith SA

Bowlers:
1 Glenn McGrath Aus 2 Muttiah Muralitharan SriL 3 Shane Warne Aus 4 Chaminda Vaas SriL 5 Shaun Pollock SA 6 Makhaya Ntini SA 7 Shoaib Akhtar Pkn 7 Andrew Flintoff Eng 9 Anil Kumble Ind 10 Matthew Hoggard Eng

All-rounders:
1 Jacques Kallis SA 2 Andrew Flintoff Eng 3 Shaun Pollock SA 4 Sanath Jayasuriya SriL 5 Daniel Vettori NZ