Can India retain their numero uno status in test cricket? If so, for how long?

India got to number one by beating Sri Lanka. To be at the top of the Test level for long it is vital that all facets of the game are covered be it fielding, bowling or batting. Today, I will be doing a SWOT Analysis of the Indian cricket team which will tell us whether India are a long term number one or whether Australia and South Africa are coming back to take the top post away.

As Ian chapell famously said with India its not India who has taken the top post from Australia. Australia have come down to the level of India after having lost their great players—India haven’t pulled themselves too high.

S-Strengths—
Batting—India’s batting remains a huge plus for them. They seem to un-ending talent when it comes to the batting department. An example to this is how great players like Rahul Dravid and Sourav ganguly have been replaced with such ease at the ODI level. I don’t think any team could have coped with the loss of such great batsmen that easily. After laxman and Tendulkar India seem to have talent in young virat kohli, subramaniam badrinath, rohit Sharma and plenty others.

The batting department seems to be covered. Bowling- India’s only bowling strength seems to be Zaheer khan. He is the only bowler who seems to have done well in the past 18 months. Harbhajan who has been the other permanent feature in the line-up has under-performed which is a major concern for the Indian team.

W-Weaknesses
Bowling-
Harbhajan singh—Bhajji continues to be a worry for India. His performance after anil kumble’s retirement has gone down immensely. He hasn’t assumed the role of the main strike bowler as of yet and is a grave cause of concern for the 6 wise men (Selectors).
India’s lack in bowling depth—VVS Laxman recently mentioned in one of the papers that India doesn’t seem to have that kind of bench strength when it comes to the spin bowling department. Bench strength doesn’t mean the number of players it means the number of quality players. Hence India in spite of having lots of pace bowlers—barely one or two quality ones are to be seen.

Fielding-
India’s fielding is a worry. They have to pounce on to their catches and there is no athletic fielder in the Indian test ranks especially after Yuvraj seems to have given his belly some working. Perhaps that will be sorted once the seniors make way for the youngsters.

O-Opportunities
Bowling-
Since India have one of the longest bowling line up in the world clearly they can convert some of them into good ones. With BCCI (Board of control for cricket in India) being the richest cricket board in the world they can develop a lot of camps not just at state levels but also at the junior level which will help develop bowlers for the future and will stand in good stead for India in the future.

T- Threats
With cash rich leagues like the IPL and champions league coming in young talent could sway towards the money part of the game in order to support their families. Hence, it is vital for the Indian board i.e. the BCCI to take the required actions and prevent this from happening.

Another possible threat could be India could just over rely on their batting strength which would not develop their bowlers. We saw how Irfan Pathan started concentrating on his batting more than his bowling. The same seems to be happening to harbhajan Singh too.

If India indeed want to stay at the top level, especially with Australia slowly but surely coming back to full strength they would have their task cut out. The main challenge for India will come when they will tour South Africa, England and Australia especially without the likes of VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid and the master himself Sachin Tendulkar.

Whether or not the young guns would be able to produce the goods under such un-friendly batting conditions is yet to be seen. But, as of now India need to work on their bowling skills. They need Ishant Sharma to get his rhythm back so that he gets his pace back. Once his pace his back to the mid 140’s the nip back in to the batsmen would be more effective. India cannot be too content with Harbhajan Singh. They need to use Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha a lot more in all forms of the game. Only once the pressure is there on harbhajan will he need to perform.

All good teams have wonderful fielding units; although India have a wonderful set of catchers; they need to make sure they need to improve their work in the outfield. However, the most important thing and the fact of the matter still remains that to stay at number one you need to win test matches all around the world and you won’t win test matches without taking 20 wickets too often, in other words you need quality bowlers to win you test matches.

A 2-0 scoreline suggests a one-sided contest, but believe me the India-Bangladesh Test series was far from one. In both the Tests, the host nation had India in trouble, but struggled to take full advantage of it and ended up conceding the series rather meekly in the end.

India, on the other hand, did impress in bits and phases. However, overall their performance against the lowly-placed Bangladeshis left a lot to be desired, the final result not withstanding. Still, a series win is a series win and India can take in a number positives as they head into the next challenge – a tough home series against South Africa.

The biggest plus for the visitors from this series was the rhythm-rediscovery of Ishant Sharma. The lanky paced, who seemed to be losing his efficiency in recent times, was nearer to his best against Bangladesh. Okay, so it wasn’t the stiffest opposition and thus one cannot read a lot into it.

But, at least this series will give Ishant the much-needed confident boost. He picked up wickets at regular intervals, and more importantly, was successful in maintaining a proper line and keeping the runs down even when he was not getting wickets.

Though not as important, this series meant a lot to Zaheer Khan too. He hadn’t been at his best in the recent series’ since making a comeback. And, as he himself admitted, he is still to rediscover his best.

Yet, the match-winning spell on what turned out to be the final day at Mirpur was something he desperately needed. The seven-wicket haul in the second innings will be etched in the left-arm seamer’s memory for a while, considering India were struggling to break through at one stage.

Deservedly, he ended up picking up the Man of the Match as well as the Man of the Series awards.

If Ishant and Zaheer were hot, there were some equally disappointing performances among the bowlers as well. Sreesanth, who announced his comeback to Test cricket with a five-wicket haul just recently, looked totally lost.

He sprayed the ball all over to be taken for plenty of runs. To add to the frustration, he bowled plenty of no-balls and to make things worse, ended up pulling a hamstring. Harbhajan Singh remained a disappointment in the one Test he played while both Amit Mishra nor Pragyan Ojha proved potent in the one outing they got, but weren’t eye-catchy in any sense.

But for the failure in the first innings at Chittagong, the batting lived up to the expectations. Gautam Gambhir continued to pile on the runs, though he missed out on a sixth consecutive Test hundred. His opening partner Virender Sehwag did not seem interested in playing the long innings against a weak opposition, but made sure he gave the side a good platform in Gambhir’s company.

All the experienced hands – Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman and Dhoni – made substantial contributions when needed, Yuvraj Singh remaining the sole disappointment.

All in all, some good practice for India ahead of the South Africa series.

After India’s win in the 1st Test at Chittagong, the action moves on to Mirpur at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium where the much anticipated 2nd Test is going to be played. The hosts would be looking forward to win this test to level the series while India would want to maintain their World No.1 ranking by taking the series 2-0.

On the first day, Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bat first on a sporting wicket as well as under extreme sunshine, unlike Chittagong where conditions were extremely murky. So, Bangladesh had the opportunity to hit back hard on the Indians and exploit the conditions.

On the other hand, India will be boosted with the return of MS Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh from injuries. However, a big setback for India is that Laxman won’t be playing after he sustained an injury on his left hand during the first test. Sreesanth too has flown back home due to a thigh strain.

However, the momentum was surely on India’s side when Ishant Sharma continued his good form by getting opener Imrul Kayes out first ball. The following over saw Zaheer Khan pick Tamim Iqbal who went without scoring too, after a near to unplayable in-winger from the left-arm fast bowler. And soon later, Junaid Siddique who replaced Shahriar Nafees in this match, also lost his wicket to Zaheer and the score was pathetic, 13/3! In came Mohd.

Ashraful, who had been criticized prior to this Test for his poor form. He was under a lot of pressure, but took charge and went after the Indian bowling. In between, Raqibul Hasan’s poor form continued as he gave Ishant his second wicket and Dravid taking an easy catch of a lazy drive on the off-side.

In the process, Bangladesh were four down. And worse, Ashraful too lost his patience and looked to play yet another aggressive but risky shot, as a result getting stumped off the bowling of off-spinner Pragyan Ojha, smashing 39 runs off just 31 balls. As the Bangladeshi skipper Shakib-al-Hasan and wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim were batting, lunch was called with Bangladesh in dire straits at 84/5.

After lunch, to a certain extent, Shakib and Rahim resurrected Bangladesh with a vital 50-run partnership until Ishant Sharma bowled a ripper of a ball, in-swinging to get Rahim lbw for a solid 30. Ishant got his third wicket and was on fire when all-rounder Mahmudullah entered the crease.

He batted remarkably well even as Shakib got out playing a rash shot of Zaheer Khan’s bowling. At 127/7, Mahmudullah had to bat out of his skin to assure Bangladesh reaching a competitive total. And to a certain extent, he did help his team do extremely well as he remained unbeaten on 96, just 4 short of a maiden test hundred.

Some resistance from the low order helped Bangladesh reach 233, with Ishant, the star for the Indians, picking up as many as 4 wickets. Still, it was India who had the upper hand due to no time constraints for the Indians for batting and weather too wasn’t expected to be a problem.

As Gambhir and Sehwag walked out, the tension could be cut with a knife. Can India this time around tear apart the Bangladeshi bowling? The batting wasn’t so convincing at Chittagong, so Bangladesh were in with a chance if they get early wickets. However, at stumps on the first day, India were 69/0 in just 12.5 overs with Sehwag in a usual attacking mode.

The start was ideal as Gambhir played well enough to stay in the hunt for bringing up his 6th century in 6 Tests. The man who has averaged close to 77 since 2008 was determined enough to get to Sir Donald Bradman’s record, even as Sehwag was given out of a good delivery by Shahadat Hossain, who ripped apart the Indian batting line up in the first test.

However, Gambhir was undone by a short delivery from the 2-Test old Shaiful Islam, and was caught by wicket-keeper Rahim for 69. Sehwag too got out in similar fashion, thus both the openers were back in the pavilion. Unfortunately, Gambhir missed out on a record hundred, yet added another half-century to his impressive tally of runs in the last two years.

The score was 130/2 when Tendulkar arrived at the crease. And thus came the marathon partnership. Both the batsmen have nearly 25000 runs between each other in test cricket and are the bulwarks of Indian cricket as they have carried the team forward to some famous victories. And today, was yet another day when the two put up a huge 222-run partnership, battering Bangladesh completely.

The Bangladesh attack, for the first time in the series looked toothless as well as hopeless. Dravid, returning to his best scored a cracking nelson, i.e., 111 before he went retired hurt after being hit on his jaw by a short Shaiful Islam delivery. Whereas Sachin Tendulkar registered his second century of the series with an exceptional 143, before some clever bowling on the leg-stump by the Bangladeshi skipper sent him packing.

But when will Tendulkar’s hunger for runs and making records come to an end? He scored his 45th century which was the highlight of the day as he has now gone 6 ahead of Ponting. Surprisingly, he also surpassed Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene by scoring 5 centuries against Bangladesh in test cricket, whereas Jayawardene has scored 4.

Coming back to the match, Dravid’s injury helped Bangladesh to fight their way back into the game as they were able to dismiss a well-set Murali Vijay for just 30. Vijay replaced Laxman for this game and clearly at that stage, Laxman’s experience could have helped. Especially when its known that Laxman and Tendulkar put up big partnerships more often than not. Bangladesh could celebrate with the wicket of Harbhajan Singh on the last ball of the day by the skipper yet again, leaving Dhoni stranded at 22.

Day 3 is expected to be a thriller as Bangladesh cannot breathe easy due to the possibility of Yuvraj Singh joining the Indian captain at the crease. Rahul Dravid too, could come out to bat. What would be interesting at this stage is the timing of Dhoni’s declaration which could give India’s bowlers ample of time to bowl out the Bangladeshis and win comprehensively 2-0. So, its clearly India whos on the drivers seat in the game.

If Sri Lanka held the upper hand at Ahmedabad, it was India all the way in Kanpur. Right from winning the toss to putting up a mammoth score on board to decimating the Lankan batting line-up, each and every thing went right for India. And so when the fourth and, what turned out to be the final day of the Test began, only the formalities needed to be completed. And India wrapped things up midway through the day. The end could have come a lot earlier but for some stubborn resistance by Thilan Samaraweera and good support by Ajantha Mendis. Still, it was an imposing victory for India, their 100th in Test matches and biggest ever against Lanka.

The day began with the visitors precariously placed at 57/4 and even though they batted positively – 149 runs were added in the morning session – the Indians kept picking up wickets at regular intervals, ensuring Sri Lanka never got a partnership going. Overnight batsman Angelo Matthews began by crashing an off-target Zaheer Khan for three cracking boundaries. The left-arm seamer though soon had his revenge as he got Matthews caught by Dravid. The remaining batsmen too continued to go after the bowlers. One really could not point a finger at the batsmen since they were in a no-win situation. Defending would have got them nowhere and the only hope they had of salvaging some pride was to make India bat again. They fell well short of that target as well as the home side romped hope by a whopping margin of an innings and 144 runs.

Following Matthews exit, there was some resistance in the form of a partnership between Samaraweera and Prasanna Jayawardene. The two added 61, with Jayawardene in particular impressing with his strokeplay. But just when he looked good for a lot more a yawning gap between bat and pad saw his furniture being disturbed. A delivery from Harbhajan Singh, which drifted back in after pitching, did the trick. In came Rangana Herath, threw his bat around for a run-a-ball 13 before becoming Harbhajan’s second victim of the day and third of the innings, trapped plumb in front of the stumps.

The most entertaining albeit short phase of the day, however, came when the maverick Muttiah Muralitharan walked out to bat. With nothing at stake, he used to long handle and enjoyed himself at the expense of the Indian spinners. Harbhajan was thrashed for plenty in one over and Pragyan Ojha too wasn’t treated differently. Murali had slammed two sixes and three fours in his 29, when Ojha managed to slip one through his slogging bat.

All this while, Samaraweera was solid as ever, notching up yet another half-century. He found an able ally in Mendis, who was prepared to defend and not just wield the willow mercilessly. The duo added 73 and frustrated the Indian bowlers, taking the game well beyond lunch. Neither looked in any kind of trouble against the same spinners who had looked threatening earlier in the day. Finally, MS Dhoni had to turn partnership breaker Yuvraj Singh and he did not disappoint, brining an end to Mendis’ resolute. Soon, Ojha brought the curtains down on the game having Chanaka Welegedara caught and bowled and India had registered a historic and memorable win. S. Sreesanth did not have much to do on this day, but his contribution the day before was telling enough to earn him the player of the match.