India can become World No 1 in Tests by end of season: Ms Dhoni

Limited over Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni believes that India’s Test side led by Virat Kohli can regain it’s top ranking in longest format by the end of the home season in which they play 13 Tests against New Zealand, England, Australia and Bangladesh.

Dhoni feels the team is shaping up well under skipper Virat Kohli and the fact that all the Indian fast bowlers are fit and doing well will hold the team in good stead in the upcoming Test matches.

“I think the Indian Test team is shaping up well. It seemed we were more settled in T20 and ODI but now our team had a good batting experience. If you notice, for the last 2 and a half years, we had the same batting unit, barring one or two changes. So you learn a lot. Test remains the ultimate format,” Dhoni told reporters after the 2^nd T20I was washed out yesterday.

“On top of it, one plus point is that all our fast bowlers are fit now and the way they are bowling. We have 10 proper fast bowlers and it’s an asset. Now we will be playing a lot of matches, so we can rotate our fast bowlers if we want to,” he observed.

Dhoni is happy that talent is now getting transformed into performance.

“As far as performance is concerned, the talent and experience of the team has started to get reflected in the performance and in the times to come, this season we will be playing 13 Tests and I think by the end of it if everything goes well, touch wood, we will be the number one team in the world and the gap between the first and second team will be substantial,” he added.

Coming back to the short T20 series, Dhoni said while the pitch remained same where the bowlers were belted for 245 in the first game, it was the addition of an extra spinner in Amit Mishra, which paid off as the World T20 champions were bowled out for less than 150.

“I don’t think the wicket changed a lot. It is same as the last wicket. It is the exposure that they had in the last game, it gave them the ability to go back and think about their own game plan and often when there is no break between two matches, it actually helps the bowlers to quickly go back and plan,” said the 35-year-old from Ranchi.

“It is the execution that matters and I think it was great. The addition of a spinner also paid off well. Mishra bowled really well. I felt it was the whole bowling unit who could restrict them to 140, it was a brilliant effort,” he added.