Report card: Team India in Tests, ODIs and T20s

With the Indian cricketers taking a well-deserved break after being on the road for an inordinately long period, perhaps the time has come to evaluate the team and the players, and where they can go from here in all three formats.

Tests

An impressive record of four wins and five draws from the last nine Tests they have played augurs well for the Indian team.

And though this is still some way off from the all-time Indian record of 17 Tests without defeat maintained during the 1985-1987 period, I would not be surprised if the present squad equals or even surpasses that.

The team is high on confidence after notching up a meritorious series victory over Australia at home, scoring 387 for four to register a famous victory over England at Chennai and following this up with a series win in New Zealand - their first in that country for 41 years.

Moreover, MS Dhoni is still to lose a Test as captain after seven matches in charge and the team wears a balanced and settled look.

The batting line-up seems mighty with Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir as opening batsmen and Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Yuvraj Singh forming a lustrous middle order with the captain himself following at No 7.

Two pace bowlers from RP Singh, Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel and two spin bowlers in Harbhajan Singh and any one from Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra and Piyush Chawla complete the line-up and it indeed consitutes a formidable outfit.

The bench strength - in case of injury or lapses in form - is full of promise and there is nothing really to worry about the Indian team as far as the longer version is concerned. It will not come as a surprise if they climb from the No 3 ranking to No 2 though the top spot could still elude them.

Image: Skipper Dhoni with the trophy after India clinched the Test series against New Zealand in New Zealand..

Text: Partab Ramchand | AP Images (Any unauthorised reproduction is prohibited)

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