Test Cricket, a form of the game which includes not only the no. of players playing it, but their professionalism, their mental & physical strengths, their skill sets & their hunger to perform at the oldest and the biggest platform of cricket, ever known to man.
India, a nation which started playing cricket back in 1932, would have only dreamt of becoming such a dominant powerhouse in the world of cricket where the players of England, West Indies and Australia once ruled.
India then was a team which was searching for a place in the world of sports, not only cricket. India's first ever test match win came against the mighty English team in their 24th test match at Madras, and since then it was only a matter of time when India became one of the final frontiers for any team to become the No. 1 side in the world.
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Let’s come to 2019 now, the current team is undoubtedly one of the bests India has ever had.
On this very note let's take a look at what were the key points where this team outclassed it's counterparts to become the powerhouse of cricket, since becoming the No. 1 test team in 2016.
• Fitness
A captains first and foremost responsibility is to indulge belief in the team, a win is not a must but a fight should be a must in every situation of the game.
That's what Virat Kohli did to this team, he indulged belief in members by making them fit enough for every big match/series, why don't the players get injured so often now?
It's because of the management of fitness, adequate rest and diet for the team are all influenced by the captain himself.
Besides that, India has also become one of the finest fielding sides in the world at the current moment because of the strictly followed practice sessions and focus on improving the standards of one's game is looked after minutely.
• Bowlers for all conditions
India has now become a team which has bowlers for every condition, be it a seaming/swinging track or be it a rank turner. India has all the weapons in the armory to lash it when the right time comes.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja had been the mainstay of this dominant run, but what made all the difference in the field were the fast bowlers who wrecked havoc on every opposition.
India's pace attack has a staggering average of 26.17 and strike rate of 52.5 which is only second to South Africa which have corresponding figures of 22.5 and 42.2, since 2016.
With the current bowling quartet of Ishant Sharma, MD. Shami, Umesh Yadav and the super impressive Jasprit Bumrah already getting the opposition down on knees, players like Bhuvneshwar Kumar are also waiting in the wings for the right opportunity to click the boxes.
• Almost invincible at home
Since India reclaimed the World No.1 Test team status, It has been no looking back atleast in terms of the home record as they blew away almost everything that came under their way, starting from thrashing New Zealand(3-0), England (4-0), Australia (2-1), each one of tests against Bangladesh and Afghanistan, Sri Lanka (1-0), Windies (2-0) and finishing off by winning the series against the neighbours Bangladesh again by a 2-0 margin.
• Terrific as a batting unit
India has been the best batting unit since 2016 with an overall batting average of 38.61 with a total of 55 tons between them.
With batsmen like Virat Kohli (3827) and Cheteshwar Pujara (3105) being the go to men for India in each of the 36 tests, during this period Indian team also produced some quality batsmen down the order like Ravindra Jadeja (1084) and Hanuma Vihari(466).
Although, seasoned campaigner like Ajinkya Rahane was a bit off-touch during this period as he only managed to score 1869 runs in the same no. of innings Kohli and Pujara played.
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With all these key points coming into play every time a team competes with the all- dominant Indian test team, which now also holds the first position in the World Test Championship table with comfortably seating at 300 points(enough for them to end this year as the table toppers) it would be a hell of a task to get the most out of them.
