Team India, the most dominant Test side since Boxing Day Test of 2014

IANS

New Delhi: "One of India's greatest Test captains under whose leadership India became the No. 1 team in the test rankings, MS Dhoni, has decided to retire from Test cricket citing the strain of playing all formats of cricket," BCCI said, after India drew the Boxing Day Test match against Australia, back on December 30, 2014. The Board further added, "Virat Kohli will be the captain of the Indian team for the fourth and final Test against Australia to be played in Sydney." 28 Test matches hence, India not only maintain their top spot on rankings chart, but also registered most wins by any team, since Dhoni's retirement.

It was a huge responsibility to take on, immense lot of added expectation and several statisticians ready to draw an analysis for the next incumbent. Every move, every decision, even his batting stats, will be under speculation. And Virat, who had earlier captained his side for the first Test in the Border-Gavaskar series of 2014 owing to Dhoni's injury, knew what he was heading to. He was (and is still) phenomenal with the willow, but can he pull off the same when given the responsibility of a Test captain?

Taking on the captaincy from the fourth Test, India's efforts to pull off at least one win against the formidable Australian squandered as the match ended in a draw. Kohli's 147, Shami's fi-fer and Ashwin's spin attack, saw no results as India once against lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to Steve Smith's men.

Virat Kohli's first assignment of a full series– India's Tour of Bangladesh – a one-off encounter and Team India headed with much confidence to upturn the minnows, but rain had a different plan as it drained down India's efforts.

Men in Blue then headed down to Sri Lanka – first Test match at Galle. Despite Ravichandran Ashwin's stellar bowling performance picking up a 10-wicket haul on his Test return, India crumbled down to Rangana Herath's deceptive spin. The spinner ripped through the formidable Indian batting line-up as he bagged seven wickets to register a 63-run win over Virat Kohli's men. It was a humiliation, not for the loss, but for the manner in which Indian batsmen failed to perform in the second innings. Questions were raised and the Test match went into Team India's history books at the 'Galle Humiliation of 2015'.

But Ravi Shastri picked up his boys from their on as India upturned the series from 0-1 to 2-1 in the next two matches. Courtesy to some spellbinding deliveries from Ashwin and some ravishing strikes from batters KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Chesteshwar Pujara and the skipper himself as India registered their first overseas win over Sri Lanka, since 1993. Not only so, the victory marked Virat Kohli's first series win as skipper.

And thus began the reign of Virat as a captain. In the next series against South Africa, India scripted a 3-0 win out of the four Test matches. That was the first of India's win on home soil under Kohli. Soon, Ravi Shastri's contract as Team Director ended and Anil Kumble was announced as the new head coach of India. But that neither changed things for Virat Kohli nor for his teammates. India were without loss in the next 19 consecutive Test matches, against teams like – West Indies, New Zealand, England, Bangladesh, finally ending the streak with Australia in the first Test, early this year.

The period witnessed the rise of Ashwin-Jadeja spin combo. The duo went up in the ICC Test rankings grabbing the first two spots. Not only so, with India whitewashing the Kiwi army, in late 2016, saw them regain the No. 1 spot after almost 10 years. Despite loss on the contentious-track against the Aussies and amid much other controversies, India went on to defeat Steve Smith's men on home soil to reclaim the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. And finally two years since the Galle Humiliation, India were able to shrug it off all with a massive 304-run victory over Sri Lanka, on Saturday. It was not just that, the win was India's biggest overseas victory since 1986.

Looking back at Virat's chart, India have now 18 victories to its name off the 28 matches played since Boxing Day Test against Australia in 2014. Virat's army leads the chart, followed by Australia, with 15 wins from 30 matches. India's track record since the 2015 defeat to Lanka, Men in Blue have won a total of 18 matches, lost just one and drew 5. The win percentage ergo stands as 75 per cent.

Since Boxing Day Test of 2014
WINS
18 (28) Ind
15 (30) Aus
13 (33) Eng
11 Pak (23)/NZ (25)/SL (27)
10 SA (25)#SLvInd — Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) July 29, 2017

Virat as a batsman? One would dare to question it, and now Virat as a captain....a 'No' either. India still have two more Test matches to go against the Lankans, after which they would head to South Africa for an all-important round of Test battle.