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After registering another dominant series victory over Sri Lanka, the Indian team is ranked number two in the Test rankings with 3,717 points with a rating of 116 from 32 matches. Currently, India has won 15 straight Test series at home while losing only two games as they have dominated every team since 2012. But, despite having such a stellar record, the Indian team is fifth in the ICC World Test Championship.
After losing in the final of the last WTC final against New Zealand, the cricketing world hoped to see India lead the tournament once again. The Men in Blue only have a point percentage of 54.16% in the WTC as they remain behind South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia. As the top two of the nine leading Test teams qualify for the WTC final, India is still pretty far away from the summit.
Check out the latest WTC standings
The road ahead:
So now, the Indian team needs to continue their run in every upcoming game on their calendar. After a two-Test series against Sri Lanka at home, India will play the final Test from the 2021 series in England that was called off due to increased Covid-19 cases. The Men in Blue will host a four-Test series against Australia, followed by a two-Test series in Bangladesh.
One can find a lot of positives in the Indian Test team with quality batters like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul etc., leading the batting lineup. Similarly, the Indian pace battery can be considered among the most terrific bowling lineups in history in the bowling department. The emergence of Shreyas Iyer in the batting department is a real positive for the team. The spin duo of R Ashwin and Ravi Jadeja have been equally dominating, along with Axar Patel who dismantled the English team in his debut series.
However, the team lost some valuable points due to the penalties imposed for slow over-rate. The penalty can cost the bowling team 1 WTC point for each over short. The Indian team have already been penalised with three points in two matches, two in the Nottingham Test and one at Centurion. So the men in blue now need to tighten these screws to have a chance to win the ultimate trophy.
