Test Dream Accomplished?
India created history by wining the second test again South Africa, and also retailed the number one position in the test match cricket. With 124 points, India lead South Africa by 4 points, who are at 120 points and they are followed by the Aussies. With an innings defeat against South Africa in Nagpur, no one thought India will bounce back in the second test. But to every one's surprise, India did extremely well and they won the match by an innings and proved the world, that we are the number one test team in the world.
Hunt for number one team in ODI:
With the test dream accomplished, we need to start another journey and this time it is ODI format. We were at number one spot earlier, but only temporarily. But the fact that even if we win the South Africa's ODI series 3-0, there is a less chance for our team to get the first position. But still we can move increase our points and this will definitely be a great boost for Team India towards the number one ODI dream. The ODI points for the teams are,
1) Australia - 134 points
2) India - 122 points
3) South Africa - 117 points
So if we win the ODI series against South Africa, we can take a very good lead from South Africa and retain our second place in ODI cricket and after that we can move towards, with a positive morale, with the goal of defeating the Australian's for the number one spot in ODI.
Why Australia is at number one, in ODI?
India got a golden opportunity to beat the Australian and get the number one position in ODI, last year. to be very simple, the match against Australia in Hyderabad, where Sachin Tendulkar scored 175 and almost got team India a victory. But unfortunately, his wicket turned the entire match at the lost moment and the Australian's won a thriller match.
After a series win against India, the Australian's had a dream run as they won a series whitewash against the Pakistanis and West Indies. Their result against these team includes,
1) White wash against Pakistan: 5 - 0
2) White wash against West Indies: 4 - 0
This whitewash against these teams have boosted their ranking and points and this made them to have a great lad in points rankings.
Task for Team India:
India started the ODI series well as the won the first ODI against South Africa by 1 run. This match turned out to be a thrilling encounter and with two more matches left in the series, a 3-0 win will definitely boost the points and also puts closer to the race for number one spot. Even a series win will fetch us a good lead for number 2 spot with a very good difference, but an 100% record will be a wonderful performance.
The absence of Gambir, Yuvraj and Harbhajan will definitely hurt team India, but at the same the youngsters like Kartik, Raina, Kohli, Jadeja did a great job against Sout Africa in the first ODI and this will boost the team's morale and ensure more win for team India.
The bowling line up depends on Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra and Sreesanth. Ravindra Jadeja proves to be an asset for team India and he is proving to be a very good all rounder and match winner as he takes wicket at crucial position.
When it comes to India's fielding, we did a great job and improvement for the past one year and this happened only because of the youngsters like Raina, Kohli, Kartik, who sets an example for the senior players.
So there is a long way to go for number 1 in ODI, but a consistent performance will make team India number 1 in ODI.