India need big Oz series win to reach WTC final

India skipper Rohit Sharma after the 0-3 loss to NZ at Wankhede on Sunday. Pic/PTI

Before the start of their international home season a month and a half back, India needed six victories in ten Tests to guarantee their place in the final of the World Test Championship for a third successive time.

With five of those scheduled at home, it was widely believed that by the time they embarked for Australia, they would need one, or at best two, wins to secure a berth in the title round on their own steam, a belief that was solidified after the 2-0 rout of Bangladesh.

Now, at the end of the international red-ball home season, India find themselves in the unenviable position of having to win four out of five Tests Down Under and not lose the other so that they don't have to depend on other results to go their way.

At the best of times, a 4-0 or 5-0 victory in Australia for visiting teams is a pipedream. And these are certainly not the best of times for Indian cricket, smarting as they are from being whitewashed in a home series of more than two Tests for the first time in history.

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Theoretically, five teams are involved in a keen battle for the two slots in the final - Australia, who currently top the table after India's 0-3 surrender to New Zealand, India, who have slid to the second position, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa. All of them have plenty of matches, several of them against each other, to buttress their case.

After India, Australia will travel to Sri Lanka for two Tests. By then, Sri Lanka would have played two Tests in South Africa, who will also play host to Pakistan for two Tests. New Zealand host England later this year in three Tests. All these matches will obviously influence how the teams stack up in the WTC points table. No team can afford to scrape through with a win here and another there. But it can't also be denied that no team is as down on confidence as Rohit Sharma's India, who also face the prospect of being without their skipper for most likely the first Test against the Aussies, starting in Perth on November 22.

India haven't won more than two Tests in a single series in Australia; they did clinch the last two series Down Under by identical 2-1 margins, but four wins in five games even in supreme form is generally a bridge too far. The next two months will provide a window to India's skills, of course, but also to their character and steel.