England will have a score to settle with South Africa, after the tourists leapfrogged them in the ICC Test Championship table.

The annual update from the ICC discards results pre-dating August 2005 - and South Africa's recent improvements are therefore reflected to the extent that they have moved up from fourth to second behind Australia, while England have dropped down one position to fourth.

India, who have also fallen one place to third, could regain second spot if England beat South Africa in the four-match series which starts at HQ on Thursday.

Australia's 23-point lead means they will remain clear leaders, even if South Africa were to beat England 4-0 this summer - an unlikely result in a series expected to be highly competitive.

A draw or better for South Africa will ensure they stay second at the end of next month.

England would need to win by at least two matches to go back above South Africa, but only a 4-0 success would be enough for Michael Vaughan's team to usurp India too. In the individual player rankings, both England and South Africa remain well-represented in the top 20.

Among the batsmen, the tourists' Jacques Kallis is sixth and captain Graeme Smith 12th - while for England, South African-born pair Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Strauss are 10th and 16th respectively.

South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn is within a whisker of replacing Muttiah Muralitharan at the top of the bowlers' rankings, and Makhaya Ntini is fifth.

England have four bowlers in the top 20 - although two of them, Matthew Hoggard and Andrew Flintoff, will not be in action at Lord's.

Kallis is the world's top all-rounder, with Flintoff third.