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Cricket PlayersAre India the best cricket team across formats?
Virat Kohli and Co have won more Test, T20s and ODIs since 2016 than any other team. What they need now is to win World Cups and the WTC.
As of Tuesday, India top the International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings in Tests and are second behind England in ODIs and T20Is. It has been more or less like that for a while now. These rankings are dynamic, a moving average that changes after every series and gives a fair understanding of a team’s position in the broader scheme of things. The ICC has also formulated a tournament cycle that witnesses a major event every two years. England, staying true to their ODI superiority, won the 2019 World Cup. The Test Championship will be decided by a final between India and New Zealand in Southampton in June while the T20 World Cup will be held in October-November to decide the new holders after a gap of five years. West Indies are the defending champions.
Here is where it gets exciting for India who last won a World Cup in 2011: with the 2023 ODI World Cup also set to be played in India, Virat Kohli’s team has a chance to win a world event in every format within two years. Why is winning a World Cup important? Because it’s a stamp of superiority that comes with four-year bragging rights, something statistics of longest unbeaten streaks or most consecutive series wins can never bequeath. Think Brazil in the 1980s, perhaps the greatest team to have never won a World Cup despite having the likes of Zico, Falcao, Eder and Socrates. Sport needs champion teams to win championships. It bolsters legacies. That’s why West Indies’ consecutive World Cup victories (1975 and 1979) corroborate their ascendancy across formats. The same applies to Australia who won three consecutive World Cups (1999, 2003 and 2007) under two different captains but the core remained more or less unchanged. Both those teams were the best Test sides of their eras too.
India has been on the verge of being the best team across formats for a few years now--over the next two years, they can make that claim definitive.
With a long-serving captain and a disciplined but empathetic support staff, India already have the numbers that make them a great team on paper. Between 2016 and Tuesday, India have won 35 out of 55 Tests, the best among all teams; next best being England with 31 wins in 65 Tests and Australia, New Zealand and South Africa with 22 wins each (although New Zealand have taken the least number of Tests---38). During the same time, India have won 63 out of 94 ODIs, again the most wins by a team, with England second best with 59 wins out of 88 ODIs and South Africa 45 out of 73 matches. And in the shortest format, India have won 46 out of 72 matches (yes, the most wins, again), Pakistan 39 out of 58 and Australia 28 of 50. India’s Test wins abroad, especially in Australia, have been celebrated for justified reasons but they have been equally good, if not better, in other formats as well. Be it thrashing South Africa 5-1 (ODI) in 2018, or England 2-1 (T20I) in 2018 or blanking New Zealand 5-0 (T20I) in 2020, India have looked a sharp unit. Except they don't have a World Cup to show for it.
The biggest factor behind this all-format superiority is the wide pool of quality players India have carefully nurtured over the years. That is the reason India could win a Test in Gabba with a combined bowling experience of four Tests. Team selections---despite the dizzying spate of chopping and changing---have made sense from a “horses for courses” perspective. Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah are playing all formats in all conditions. When completely fit, Hardik Pandya is expected to join that list and may only sit out when India play at home. The Test core of Cheteshwar Pujara, Ishant Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari looks set for a long haul. Mohammad Shami too might be managed according to important tours and tournaments. Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are preferred spinners in Tests while Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar and Rahul Chahar have been chosen for shorter format duties. The Test squad looks most composed but at least 7-8 players are being tried in the shorter formats. Rarely has India displayed such expert resourcefulness.
So can India win the ICC events in the next three years to seal their status as one of the best cricket teams ever? It’s quite possible. By 2023, Kohli will be 35 and Sharma 36 so they know that will be their last World Cup. But with Bumrah, Pant, Shreyas Iyer and Pandya maturing rapidly, India are sure to have top billing at home. On a more immediate note though, India have two major ICC events to look forward to in the next seven months. Defeating England in a hard-fought T20 series this month was India’s notice to the world that they remain the team to beat at this T20 World Cup despite not winning it since 2007. But the World Test Championship final, against a resilient team like New Zealand in seaming conditions like Southampton, can be a grind. India won’t mind it though. Such has been the momentum. Such has been their grit.
