On paper, England are and will remain the No. 1 Test side even if they are swept 0-3 by a relatively inexperienced Pakistan team that is itself recovering from fixing scandals and other distractions.  But many will question whether they deserve to remain in that spot, and some will even question if they were ever worthy of that title.

The reason is the same that reason, India was constantly being questioned by the likes of Cricinfo, and other critics when they achieved the No. 1 spot in Test rankings and throughout their reign, which as of now looks to have lasted a lot longer than what the English team will manage to achieve.  India's weakness was against seam and swing on green, fast and bouncy pitches.  England's is against top quality spin on turning tracks. 

And neither is a new phenomenon.  India were known to turn from conquering tigers to tame tabbies when they ventured to the verdant arenas of England, Australia, New Zealand, etc. for much of their history.  It was only the decade long interlude between 2001 and 2011 under the leadership of first Sourav Ganguly, and later stints under Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and MS Dhoni, who built on the legacy of Ganguly that India became truly competitve everywhere.  But all of that came crashing down in the space of 6 months.

England have not won a series in India since David Gower was captain and Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister.  In fact, England have won only 1 Test match, let alone a series, in past 20 played in the subcontinent, not counting Bangladesh. 

The ranking of the 2011 England team after it reached No. 1 on paper, as one of the All-Time Great teams comparable to those led by Sir Don Bradman, Clive Lloyd and Steve Waugh as was done by Cricinfo in a contest  was not only premature, it was actually quite hilarious, but typical of the bias found there.   

England now face a series of 9 matches in the subcontinent.  If they win a series or even a Test during that time, they will no doubt treat it as a great "moral victory", the only kind they seem to be able to achieve in spin friendly conditions, despite having in Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann two high class spinners themselves.

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Indian Cricket Poll