Chanderpaul now leads the batting rankings for the first time in his career. The Guyanese player averaged 91 in the past 12 months but still ended up on the losing side in five out of eight Tests against South Africa, Sri Lanka and Australia.
However, the points difference between the two southpaws is small and Sangakkara can regain his top spot if he performs well with the bat against India in the second Test which begins on Thursday in Galle.
In fact, Sri Lanka's thumping win by an innings and 239 runs in Colombo in which the Lankans scored 600 runs has ensured there is a major reshuffle in the rankings. Four of the six Lankan batsmen scored centuries which meant Mahela Jayawardene (6th), Tillakaratne Dilshan (29th), Thilan Samaraweera (37th) and Malinda Warnapur (48th) have gone up in their rankings.
There is no good news for India in the batting list except VVS Laxman has improved his position by three places and is now in 18th spot.
Sachin Tendulkar, who scored 27 and 12, has slipped one place to 15th but still remains India’s highest-ranked batsman. Rahul Dravid has dropped three places to 19th while Virender Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly have dropped out of the top 20.
Sehwag has slipped three places to 21st position while Ganguly now sits in 24th place after dropping four spots.
