A Philosophical View Of The No 1 Test Ranking

There has been only a muted reaction to India’s return to No.1 on the ICC’s Test rankings, after victory over New Zealand in the second Test in Kolkata. There is, it is fair to say, a general lack of enthusiasm around the rankings themselves and nobody is particularly thrilled.

- Shreedutta Chidananda

Back in 2009, when India hammered Sri Lanka in Mumbai to rise to the top of the ICC’s Test rankings for the first time, there was much genuine celebration. This was something unprecedented and historic. To followers of Indian cricket, it was incredible that a side that had travelled so poorly in the nineties had turned things around and finally reached the mountaintop. It felt like a genuine triumph.

THOSE EMOTIONS STAND IN CONTRAST to the slightly muted reaction to India’s return to No.1 on the ICC’s Test rankings, after victory over New Zealand in the second Test in Kolkata. There is, it is fair to say, a general lack of enthusiasm around the rankings themselves. India was on top for a week during its tour of the West Indies, before being dethroned by Pakistan. It is now number one again, after victory over an honest but hardly exhilarating New Zealand side. Nobody is particularly thrilled. India deserves credit but there is hardly the sense that something enormous has been accomplished.

BETWEEN MAY 2015 AND NOW — a period whose results most affect India’s position on the table — Virat Kohli’s men have beaten Sri Lanka and West Indies away, thrashed South Africa at home, drawn with Bangladesh, and now swept New Zealand aside. In the two years before that, a period whose results get 50% weightage, India suffered four series losses — in South Africa, New Zealand, England and Australia — and beat West Indies at home. India’s ascent to the top this time does not feel extraordinary.