Ponting, Gilchrist, Hussey on the brink of personal records

Dubai, Apr 8 (UNI) Top Australian players including captain Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist are on the brink of reaching personal landmarks when they take on Bangladesh in the first Test at Fatullah tomorrow.

Ponting, Gilchrist and Mathew Hayden require a century each to complete a Test hundred against all ICC full members.

Gilchrist is inching towards another landmark as he now needs 32 runs to become the 16th Aussie to score 5000 runs in Tests.

Meanwhile, Michael Hussey needs just 103 runs to reach 1000 runs in Tests and if he achieves that in his first innings, his 17th at the highest level, he will join Sid Barnes as the equal third-quickest Australian to reach that mark behind Donald Bradman (13) and Neil Harvey (14).

A landmark awaits Bret Lee also and the tearaway bowler is just 11 runs shy of 1000 runs in Tests and if he gets there it will make him just the tenth Australian to achieve the Test double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets.

However, even if Australia win both Tests their rating in the LG ICC Test Championship table will remain at 131 when re-calculated to the nearest whole number while Bangladesh will drop by just one rating point to 3.

The second Test is scheduled for April 16 to 20 at Chittagong.

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