Aug 22, 2011
No-one would deny England their right to be regarded as the No.1 Test team in the world at the moment. Their domination of India, following on from their recent spate of success against Australia, has clearly demonstrated the side's placement on the world scene.
It is reward for consistency, as these rankings must always be - consistency of selection, performance and opportunity taken by those lucky enough to receive it.
Whenever teams achieve these sorts of goals the method of success seems so obvious that it sometimes defies belief that it took so long to get there.
This is especially the case among leading nations. For countries like Pakistan, New Zealand and the West Indies, of the longer placed teams in the top echelon of international play, the lack of resources mean they are less likely to challenge for the top place. Theirs is a once in a generation opportunity while England, Australia, South Africa and India each have the resources to be among the leading sides in the world on a much more consistent basis.
That they are not always in that position comes down to organisation, planning for the future and player development – something Australia, after such a long period of domination, is struggling with at the moment.
But it has been a long road for England to achieve its ranking and, perhaps most of the top countries, it is the team that could be said to have most squandered its resources over the years. However, after the initial steps put in place by Duncan Fletcher, it has been Andy Flower's good fortune to be able to build on that and make England the force that it should be in the world Test game.
What then for India? It has suffered heavily from injury concerns during the series in England and that is unfortunate. But against that it needs to be asked if the injury list is surprising given the amount of cricket India's players are now subjected to.
The blind dedication to the IPL must have an impact on player performance and the workload is not something that looks like lessening in the immediate future. After the Test series with England, they play a one-day series of five ODIs. They go home to play in the Champions League. Following that the West Indies turn up for a series in India and once that is over it is off to Australia in December for a four-Test series.
India's Australian preparation? A warm-up game of four days in Canberra! That will be a severe test of Indian skill as Australia looks to regain some of its lost prestige.
India's other factor is the ageing nature of its batting lineup especially. Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag are all over the hump and can't go on forever.
In the meantime England are set to play a Test series in the United Arab Emirates against Pakistan where their status as No.1 will come under its first assault.
For the moment England can bask in its new-found status while others can absorb the lessons of team, and performance, building and make their own bid for No.1 status. There is no doubt that when there is a more even spread of performance among the leading nations Test cricket takes on an extra edge for the fans and that continues to make the longest form of the game still the most appealing.
Yet another fascinating southern hemisphere summer is in prospect.
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