South Africa will overtake Australia at the top if they win series 3-0 while India will retake second place if they beat England in Mohali.
South Africa will go top of the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship table if they beat Australia 3-0 in the three-match series that gets underway in Perth on Wednesday.
Graeme Smith's team gets its tour underway in earnest with two fast bowlers – Makhaya Ntini and Dale Steyn – in the top five of the player rankings on a WACA surface that traditionally favours the pace men.
Currently, Australia are 13 points ahead of the Proteas at the top despite their recent 2-0 series defeat in India, indicating just how dominant they had been for a protracted period of time before then. But now there is a real race on for the top as South Africa and India have Ricky Ponting's men in their sights.
India completed a remarkable victory over England in Chennai on Monday by scoring 387-4 in the fourth innings, with most of those runs coming on day five of the Test.
The ICC Test Championship is only updated at the end of each series so that victory is not reflected yet but if Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team puts in a similar performance in the second and final Test at Mohali it will gain three points and move into second position, just 11 points behind Australia.
Then it will be all eyes on Australia as the world's number-one team attempts to stay at the top. A 3-0 defeat will drop it below South Africa by a fraction of a point in which case just four ratings points would separate the top three teams in the world.
A 2-0 win for South Africa would leave them in second place just two points short of Australia while a 1-0 or 2-1 victory would leave the gap at five points and a drawn series would see Australia lose two points and South Africa gain one.
It should not be forgotten that South Africa have never won a Test series in Australia and Ponting's men will be looking on this as a great opportunity to restore their self-confidence and public faith after that difficult tour of India.
A 3-0 series win for the home side will give it four points and stretch the gap with SA to 21 while Australia can also strengthen their position at the top by winning 2-0, 1-0 or 2-1.
South Africa must be careful they do not end the series behind India. If India win the second Test against England in Mohali they will go second leaving SA needing a series win of some kind just to stay second in the Test Championship table.
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