Cricket: England Win Test, Series, & Number 1 Ranking

England won the 3rd test of the 4 match series by an innings and 242 runs, to take an unbeatable 3 – 0 lead in the series, and in the process grab the world number one test ranking from India. England thoroughly deserve the ranking to say the least, and India will have to seriously introspect on what has transpired throughout this series, given the show that they have put up.

This is MS Dhoni’s first test series loss ever as captain, and it has been a complete whitewash in all departments of the game. Even the great Sehwag who flew in to England for this test could not make any impact, and in fact got himself a King’s Pair. England simply look the better team in all ways, and are hungry to win, while on the other hand, India look like a team who is tired and unwilling to go that extra mile to make anything happen in their favor. In the batting department, Rahul Dravid has been the only man standing tall, though the same did not happen in the 3rd test at Birmingham. The others have looked rusty. the bowling has been toothless, while the fielding has been shabby, to say the least. On the other hand, England have been top class in all departments of the game. Cook narrowly missed out on a triple in this match, but it has to be said that he put team before personal glory, and went after the bowling in an attempt to up the run rate for his team.

In short, this has been a series in which England have been all over India, and not once on this tour have India looked like a top team ever. Now even if India win the last test of the series, England have already assured them of the number 1 spot in test cricket, and it is left to be seen if they go on to become a great team that dominates world cricket, just like the Windies of the 80s and the Aussies of the last 2 decades.

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