Atherton and Gough climb into the top ten

Michael Atherton's heroics in Pakistan, and particularly his century in the final Test, have hoisted him into the top ten of the PriceWaterhouse Coopers rankings of the world's best batsmen.

Previously 11th in the rankings, Atherton has now climbed to equal seventh with India's Rahul Dravid.

Atherton scored 341 runs at an average of 68.2 during the series. He is now comfortably England's highest ranked batsman following Alec Stewart's fall to 20th.

Another batsman steadily climbing the table is Graham Thorpe who hit the winning runs in Karachi to clinch the series for England. He now stands at 31 in the table, a rise of five places.

Like Atherton, Darren Gough rose four places to seventh among the bowlers, a fine achievement in conditions unfavourable for pacemen. He picked up ten wickets in the series and has shot ahead of opening partner Andy Caddick who has fallen from eighth position to 15th.

Ashley Giles has settled into 33rd spot following a successful series, one ahead of colleague Craig White who rose six places. White, in fact, is showing his all-round abilities by shooting up 35 places to number 72 among the batsmen.

For Pakistan the major success stories were Yousuf Youhana who was the top run scorer in the series with 342. He jumped 16 places following his superb performance and now stands at 13th.

Meanwhile spinner Saqlain Mushtaq rose five places to 14th after an impressive series.