India vs England: How 5-0 whitewash against England will impact India’s number 1 Test ranking

India’s abject surrender at Lord’s has begun to draw parallels with the 2011-tour when the much-vaunted Indian team led by MS Dhoni drew a blank in England.

India, who were then the number one side, ceded the number one spot to the Andrew Strauss-led side after they were humbled across all the four Test matches.

However, for Virat Kohli’s team, their ranking is not under threat and such has been their dominance in their own backyard and in subcontinental conditions that even if they are handed a 5-0 drubbing, they will still be the number 1 side in the world.

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As the table stands now, India with 125 points is the number one Test side and South Africa, who were whitewashed 2-0 by Sri Lanka in the Test series which concluded last month, hold the number two position.

England, which is currently ranked number five with 97 points, cannot quite inflict the damage as far as the points table is concerned. However, if they do manage to walk away with the series 5-0, they will jump up to the number two spot on the table.

India lost the Lord’s Test match by an innings and 159 runs and this drew the ire of many former Indian players.

Captain Virat Kohli too conceded that his team was not up to mark and deserved to lose the match.

“Yeah looking back, I thought we got the combination wrong. Not proud of the way we’ve played. First time in the last five Tests that we’ve been outplayed. We deserved to lose this game, the way we went about things,” he said after the match.

The third Test begins at Trent Bridge on August 18.

First Published: Aug 13, 2018 17:33 IST