Is this really the best Indian team in the last 15 years?

Sometimes, when you're winning it's easy to just ride the wave and think everything is working just fine. There is a saying no? Don't fix what ain't broken.

India is the No.1 ranked Test team in the world and after a second win against Australia, there have been many proclamations from all corridors of India bringing one of their best sides ever to Australia.

Like always, the devil is in the detail and today we try to delve a bit deeper and find out whether all these proclamations are actually true and measure up this team among the best that have toured in the last decade or so (after all Ravi Shastri did proclaim this unit to be the best team to have toured in last 15-odd years).

As an added factor let's compare the oppositions the teams were up against because that makes a huge difference to the records.

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#1 The fast bowling unit

The Trio has made a huge impact this year

First, if we talk about fast bowling you've got to say that the combination of Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, and Shami is probably one of the better attacks in the world right now. If we have to compare them with a trio of fast bowlers that we'd had in the last 15 years then Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth and RP Singh (the trio that helped in the triumph in England) comes to mind.

If we compare the two then you can say that the trio of Zaheer, Sreesanth, and RP Singh was probably more potent as a new ball attack and was able to cause a lot more damage with the new ball than the current line-up.

But, if we dig deeper (as is the theme of this piece, isn't it?), we see the current line-up being more consistent, aggressive and never letting up on the opposition. The current bowling line-up is overall more potent throughout all the junctures whether the ball is new or old and it does give them an edge over the previous attacks in terms of its effectiveness and lethal nature.

#2 The spinners

Both Ashwin and Jadeja have put together a superb partnership

Jadeja and Ashwin have been amazing in India there's just no doubt about it. But at the same time, you Just have to admit two crucial things, one is the decline in the quality of sides from both Australia and South Africa and second is how much dryer Indian pitches have become now which sometimes exaggerates the numbers in their favour.

Even then it is undeniable that they have been a potent combination. But when you compare that with Anil Kumble and Harbhajan at their prime you have to say that the old guns take this comparison because of the versatility they provided and the success that they'd had abroad as well.

Kumble was the pillar of Indian bowling and had many five-wicket hauls in the series against Australia in 2003 while Harbhajan for his part had notched up a five-wicket haul himself. Despite the grand success that the duo of Ashwin and Jadeja have had, their overseas mettle is still not proven and thus gives the old guard a decisive edge.

#3 The middle-order

Pujara, Kohli and Rahane have been permanent fixtures in the team

In the middle order, we have Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, and Sourav Ganguly compared to the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma.

Although it might seem slightly unfair to compare the two (given the wealth of experience on one side), the current middle order has been on multiple tours already and has been a constant fixture for a long time now.

And if we compare both the middle-orders then again it's a no contest of sorts. Barring Virat and maybe to an extent Pujara after his current showing in Australia, there's hardly been anyone who has consistently performed well overseas. In fact, if we look back at only this year's record if not for Virat the complete middle-order has been pretty mediocre whenever it has played outside India.

#4 The openers

Mayank Agarwal

In the current crop, we have Mayank Agarwal, K L Rahul, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, and Hanuma Vihari. The next stable opening combination that we are looking at is probably the combination of Shaw and Agarwal.

If there is one thing that is reflective from the number of potential openers that could make it to the squad is that India's opening combination needs a lot of catching up to do and is just not stable enough.

Comparing that with the combination of Sehwag-Gambhir, Sehwag-Chopra, Jaffer-Karthik would just show how far behind our current opening combination is right now. And lest we forget, India lost two wickets for less than 10 runs in both the innings of Perth.

And that has been the case for a while now, Vijay has been woefully out of form, the same is the case with KL Rahul. Shikhar Dhawan hasn't proven himself to be potent enough overseas which leaves India devoid of options.

The opposition

Kallis is among many legends that have retired and left their teams substantially weakened

Ok, let's cut straight to the chase. The current Australian team doesn't hold a candle against the vintage Australian team. Let's go one step further. The current Australian team is a pale shadow of what it was a year back.

Moving beyond Australia, let's talk about South Africa, they've lost Kallis, Smith, Boucher, Ntini and many more. Recently they even lost out on the services of AB de Villiers. They are not the team they used to be in their prime.

England is probably the most all-rounded team in the world as it ticks most of the boxes. And, this is the reality of the cricketing world right now. The major nations are in a rebuilding phase and both India and England are probably the most well-placed teams in the world right now.

So, yes this team might have won against this Australian team but it would have been very tough to beat a full-strength Australian team (as was the case against South Africa and England earlier this year)

The verdict

There are still some gaps to bridge for this side to be the best ever

As I said, this post was all about digging into the details and this does answer a few questions.

Is it really the best Indian team to have toured Australia? Probably not, as both the teams in 2003 and the 2007-08 series were probably a bit more balanced and had a vastly more reliable batting line-up albeit a shade weaker bowling lineup.

Is it really one of the biggest triumphs in Indian Cricket? No, because India were the favourites to win here and the past wins in Adelaide (2003) and Perth(2007-08) were probably against much stronger oppositions.

But if there's one thing that can be taken out as a positive is that, in an era where home series has almost reached the status of fortresses, India are one of the few teams that has been able to notch up wins while travelling which makes it one of the more formidable sides in the world