So here we are. The No. 1 Test team in the world. I’ve been asked many, many times, how that really feels and when I think about it now, I’m still searching for the right answer. In our entire short – and with some of the players, quite long careers – this has been a journey of a lifetime and I have to say that the No.1 ranking has been achieved because of the team work.
This may sound clichéd when it comes to describing a team’s achievement in any case – in press conferences following big wins, most of the time captains do say, we made it because we played like a team.

In the case of the Indian cricket team, those words have a far deeper meaning. I mean, think about it, teams win an ODI or T-20 games with sheer individual brilliance, but to win a Test match or to do well in Test cricket for a long stretch of time, they need each and every member of the side to pitch in with valuable contributions, by sticking to the roles given to them.

Trust me when I say that I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the rankings and the means needed to achieve the No. 1 spot. I don’t even know many members in the side who spend a lot of time doing that either. In any case, the media is always there to remind us of where we are, what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong and to offer us a dozen suggestions of what needs to be done to get to No. 1. (Thanks, guys!)

But to get to the No. 1, all we’ve done is to try to take every step in the right direction, set small goals and achieve them, set small targets and get them. To try to make a good session to evolve into a good day, a good Test match and a good series. Once that happens, results and rankings will follow. My mantra is simple: take care of Test matches and the rankings will take care of themselves.

You can look at this from our batting perspective. We needed Gautam Gambhir to stay at the crease for almost eleven hours to save the Napier Test. A ballistic Virender Sehwag to open a chase against England in Chennai, against which most teams would settle for a draw. You need steel and resolve of Rahul Dravid to get you out of woods or consolidate from other end. Then there’s the man for all seasons and reasons, Sachin Tendulkar to guide us all on and off the field with his bat and wisdom. The regal VVS Laxman and dashing Yuvraj Singh can change the course of the games very quickly. In this line up, I need to do very little!

With all due respect to the previous generations of batsmen and those that are to follow, I would not hesitate to say that if this batting line up had not achieved it, it would have been difficult to achieve it at all. Let’s take nothing away from the bowlers, who have been outstanding in all conditions. The seamers took wickets on a batting beauty in Kanpur, the spinners took wickets in by and large unfriendly conditions. My two main bowlers Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh have really responded to the challenge of leading the attacks with youngsters at other end.

Since Anil Bhai’s retirement, it is Harbhajan who is our main spinner and he has tried his best to fill in those big boots. There will be days he will get wickets and there will be days he won’t have much to show, but I have the best seat in the house to pass judgement on him. I think he has been on the mark almost always and when that’s not the case, he is quite open to discuss it and sort it out. What we have also done very successfully is to compartmentalize the leadership roles. Sachinbhai is the leader of our batting department and do I need to explain what kind of role he plays in this capacity? Zaheer has been like an elder brother to most of the young bowlers and that helps me a lot.

At times young bowlers can shy away from their captain when it comes to sharing their difficulties as they find it a bit tough to reveal what their problems really are. But with Zak, who is both their bowling partner and an experienced campaigner, they share anything and everything with great comfort. It is the same with Harbhajan where Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra spend a lot of time with him and look after each other.
All these small things reduce the burden of a captain and make our dressing room a really happy and noisy one. That is what we carry on the field, a very positive vibe and genuine joy for each other’s success.

Now I come to one of the very important cogs in our wheel. Our coach Gary Kirsten has been really one of the most selfless workers who has stayed behind-the-scenes. Despite being a great cricketer himself he never came to India with fixed ideas or vision to guide or preach to Indian cricket. He found his ideas within our set-up and worked out a strategy which works in our culture. He has understood that in India, love and emotion can get you more response and contribution than say, the tenets of professionalism.

Let’s be honest: as Indians, we’re all sentimental people. Utter a few harsh words and players will not trust you. Try a few sugar-coated bitter pills instead and people will go all out and give more than hundred percent. Like any good man manager, Gary knows how to get the best out of us. A coach’s ‘toughness’ doesn’t mean giving grand statements about your role to the media or setting targets in public to put pressure on players. (As if they have less pressure to live with.)
Toughness means making each individual aware of his role and responsibilities and pushing them to stretch their limits. If you manage to do it more often than not, you will conquer the conditions, equations and desired targets. That is what Gary and his support staff have done with great efficiency.

At this point in time, one must not forget the contributions made by the previous captains, like Sourav Ganguly who gave us the right intent to win everywhere and Anil Kumble who put in the steel to our resolve. And make no mistake where ever we are today is an evolution process of Indian cricket. If there was no Gavaskar, it would not have inspired players like Dravid and Tendulkar to achieve this feat. If there was no Kapil Dev who would have believed in the art of fast bowling, if there was no 1983 World Cup, how could we have learnt to dream of becoming No. 1? So everyone who has played for India has played a role in this journey.

Now our big challenge is to be consistent and keep our focus on consistency. 2011 will be a big year for us. Apart from World Cup, again we will be travelling around the world to play in different conditions and that will test every ounce of our cricket and our character. As I firmly believe in living in the moment and am not a great fortune-teller of any kind, one thing I would wish for is that in that time, the composition of the side remains same till then more or less. One of the reasons we’ve done well in Test cricket is also because there hasn’t been much chopping and changing.

Right now we are in Bangladesh and it will throw a different kind of challenge. What we need to focus on is not the fact that we’re the No.1 team, but that we are a very very good cricket team for sure. And that’s how we would like to be remembered.

I realise I’ve been rambling for a while now, and must stop here. So goodbye for now and have a great New Year. You can be sure the Indian cricket team will keep trying to experience one of those all over again!

MSD

This article was written on 29^th Dec 2009