Sachin Tendulkar [ Images ] remains the highest-ranked Indian batsman at joint-13th, even as Rahul Dravid [ Images ], Virender Sehwag [ Images ], Sourav Ganguly [ Images ] and V V S Laxman [ Images ] slipped a rung each, in the ICC [ Images ] Test rankings issued on Tuesday.

• Complete Rankings

Tendulkar, however, shares his place with England [ Images ] right-hand batsman Ian bell [ Images ], who scored a career-best 199 in the drawn first Test against South Africa [ Images ] at Lord's.

• Bell comes of age as Test batsman

The knock helped Bell rise nine places.

However, the other Indians in the top-20 slipped, with Dravid going down a place to 15th. Same was the case with Sehwag, Ganguly and Laxman, who dropped a spot to 18, 19 and 20 respectively.

Meanwhile, Kevin Pietersen [ Images ] rose three places to seven, his highest ranking this year.

The batting list is still headed by Kumar Sangakkara [ Images ] of Sri Lanka [ Images ]. He is followed by the West Indies' [ Images ] Shivnarine Chanderpaul [ Images ], Mike Hussey [ Images ] of Australia [ Images ] and his captain Ricky Ponting [ Images ], along with Mohammad Yousuf [ Images ] of Pakistan, the latter two sharing fourth place.

In the bowling list, Anil Kumble [ Images ] is the highest-placed Indian at eight followed by Zaheer Khan [ Images ] at joint-14th. Controversial off-spinner Harbhajan Singh [ Images ] is 18th.