Having become Indian captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has taken his team to number one spot in the ICC Test rankings besides leading his charges to the game’s most prestigious title – World Cup – recently.
Currently, Indian face no danger of being dethroned from their top position in Test cricket even if they lose their third Test as the West Indies are placed at a lowly 7th position in the Test rankings and have 42 points less than Dhoni’s team. India, in the game’s limited-overs format under Dhoni’s captaincy have won 13 series/tournaments out of a total of 21. However, six out of eight defeats suffered by India came in the contests held abroad.
In Test cricket, where India are at the pinnacle, they have only won two out of the five series while playing away from India and that too against minnows Bangladesh and a relatively weak New Zealand side.
Former England captain Ian Botham and ex-Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly have already expressed that the real test for team India will be in England where Dhoni and company will meet the hosts in the first Test from July 21 at Lord’s.
Therefore, keeping in view India’s dismal overall record of mere five wins in 48 Test matches played against England in their backyard, it will be a huge challenge for Dhoni’s world champions to challenge the Ashes-triumphant Andrew Strauss’ brigade in the ongoing summer.
MUBASHIR MAHMOOD
Karachi
