India will have a difficult time making it to the Test Championship final for a second straight year. While Sri Lanka is currently in third place, South Africa and Australia are their main competitors for that position. They are currently positioned fourth. India must make sure that they win the majority of their remaining six games and do not lose any.
With a commanding performance in the opening Test against Bangladesh in Chattogram, they have made a strong start to their final push for the position. The team, according to head coach Rahul Dravid, is just taking each test as it comes and isn’t planning too far ahead.
“It is one step at a time. I don’t think we can start looking at the sixth one before we start here. We have got to win this one first. We have to play our best cricket to give ourselves a chance and then go to Dhaka and replicate. Just take it as we go,” said Dravid in an interview.
We know we have a challenge in our hands: Rahul Dravid
Four of their games will be against Australia at home. In a three-match Test series that begins on Saturday, Australia will also play host to South Africa. The current top two could see significant drops in their win percentage in the upcoming months, particularly Australia, which has the difficult task of facing India in India. Since 2015, neither at home nor away, Australia has been able to defeat India in a Test series.
“We know we have a challenge in our hands, we have to win a majority of the games we have left in the championship. But we are not going to get there if we don’t take the first steps well. We have to focus on this one and then see how the cards fall and then we will see what we have to do in the series against Australia,” said Dravid.
