Good news for all the Indian fans! Team India has gone on the top of the test match rankings by beating the Sri Lankans rather easily in the third and the final test match at Mumbai. In the process they have also managed to win the series 2-0.
Before the start of this series, the Indian side was at the number three position behind South Africa (number 1) and Sri Lanka (2). However, a 2-0 verdict would have given them the number one position, a possibility that looked difficult after the end of the first test match of the series at Ahmedabad, which seemed to have exposed India’s thing bowling line-up. However, the inclusion of a more subdued S. Sreesanth in the second test match got them back onto track as did the centuries from Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid in the second test match.
According to the current rankings, India is now at the number one position, whereas South Africa is at number two. Australia go one notch up at three, whereas Sri Lanka, who were also gunning for the top slot will now be four.
It is not only the number one slot that the Lankans lost. Before getting to India, the captain, Kumar Sangakkara had also spoken to the media about how desperately they wanted to overcome their final frontier. Sri Lanka had yet to win a single game in India ever since they began touring in 1985, and even after this series, the Lankans have not won a single one! Out of the 17 games that the Lankans have played in the country, they have lost ten of them – including two in this series – and drawn the remaining. In fact, such has been the domination of the Indians over Sri Lanka at home, that eight of the ten wins have been innings wins, and the other two have been near-200 run wins.
Unfortunately for India though, their reign at the top will not remain for a long time. And that has to do with the fact that India does not play more than two test matches in the next ten or so months. In the same period, South Africa will be featuring in four games, whereas Australia play eight games, which gives them a much better chance of snatching back the top position.
For now though, the Indians can rejoice with the verdict, on a system that was first started in 2001!
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