Team India's Quest For Test Supremacy

Apart from the opening pair and the confusion over Rohit, India seems to be a settled team. Even at the start, Lokesh Rahul and Murali Vijay seem to be settling in...

- Sunil Garodia

The freak weather conditions that forced the abandonment of the last Test at St. Lucia in the West Indies pushed India to number two in the Test rankings. Pakistan got the number one spot, nosing ahead by just one point. India was well placed to take the top spot but the weather Gods were not smiling.

There will be a total of 40 Test matches that will be played from September 2016 to March 2017. Out of these, India will play 13, Pakistan 12, Australia 10, England 7, South Africa 9, New Zealand 10 and Sri Lanka 5. The other teams have been left out as they are too far behind in the rankings and their current form does not inspire the faith that they will spring regular surprises by beating higher ranked teams to be serious contenders for the top spot.

Now if we see that India and Pakistan are the two top teams and both are going to play almost an equal number of matches during the period (September 2016 to March 2017), we have to first compare situations for them. But since Australia and England are also breathing down the neck, let us include them too. Let us suppose India and Pakistan win all their matches, England wins 2 against Bangladesh and Australia 3 against South Africa. Then at the end of the period, India will be at the top with 122 points, Pakistan second at 120 points, Australia third at 108 points and England fourth at 105 points.