What's the meaning of India's number 1 status in ODIs?

The time has come again for blowing the trumpets and burying the last two months’ performances as India become the number one ranked team in ODI cricket again.

See the irony – the Men in Blue achieved the number two rank after they won the ICC Cricket World Cup in April 2011 after all the hard work, and have become number one after losing three of their last six matches now. India even has the chance of strengthening their ranking if New Zealand and Sri Lanka continue their impressive show in South Africa and Australia respectively.

India’s form in the current ODI series clearly brings to rest all the doubts on selection, pace bowling attack, lack of all-rounders or the persistent issue of non-quality spinners. When will the nation realise that the ranking status is not the true reflection of the side’s playing form but a result of how badly other teams have performed over last one week? Australia’s dismal performances against Sri Lanka and South Africa being unable to defend even 208 against New Zealand have contributed more to India’s rise in the ICC rankings rather than their occasional good performances in the last couple of matches.

With this kind of ranking system in place, Dhoni and Co. are ranked the number one team without reaching the finals of the last two multiple nation tournaments in this format.

Hailing Dhoni as the best ODI batsman or the best ODI captain is not at all wrong at this point, as he has really tried to bring back the convincing victories which for quite some time now, have looked a distant dream. But should performances on flat tracks be counted to bestow these laurels when the Indian team can’t fight out in the manner in which Sri Lanka is fighting in Australia, or how New Zealand is trying not to succumb to the best pace bowling attack of South Africa in their own den?

While teams are fighting it out to prove a point in international tours, India’s wins in home conditions have in fact dried down and some occasional victories raise hopes for the future without realising the fact that we don’t know how to play (leave alone win) outside our country. The tragedy would be to send this same team to the Champions Trophy in England based of the performances in this series, the chances of which are high since there’re no ODIs for India after this series. All the players would be busy with IPL in April and May and have a fresh start in the Champions Trophy. Tactically, foreign tours are being avoided by BCCI after this year’s IPL, especially after the 2011 debacle. But this time, the challenge comes in the shorter format after the IPL. How many players would be able to perform in Champions Trophy to maintain the number one ranking in letter and spirit, is a thing that needs to be looked at.

Probably a similar result like the tour to England in 2011 would make the BCCI realise that the players should be rested after IPL (without planning any foreign tours) so that the debacles can be stopped. After all, BCCI cannot stop the players from playing IPL if there are any major tournaments/tours planned after it.