Is this the start of an Indian decade of dominance?

SIMON HUGHES: Having beaten England in all three formats and with a strong and youthful core, can Virat Kohli's team join Clive Lloyd's West Indies and Steve Waugh's Australia in the pantheon of greats?

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So India took all the spoils of the England tour. It was 3-1 in the Test series, 3-2 in the T20s and 2-1 in the concluding ODIs. And this will not be the last time they complete a clean sweep of the silverware. In fact, this is just the start.

It is perfectly reasonable to envisage a scenario where they hold the World Test Championship and both limited-overs World Cups (the next 20 and 50-over events are being held at home). As we say on the latest Analyst Inside Cricket podcast, this group of Indian players is possibly the most talented squad of players the cricket world has ever seen.  

There have been two truly dominant teams over the last 50 years. The West Indies of the 1980s and the Australians of the 1990s and early 2000s.

Clive Lloyd's West Indies won two World Cups and lost one Test series in a decade. Steve Waugh’s (and later Ricky Ponting’s) Australians lost three-Test series in a decade (out of 33) and won three successive World Cups.

Both teams had a core of six or seven great players and some excellent support acts. For the Windies that was Lloyd, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Sir Viv Richards, Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding and Joel Garner (and later Brian Lara, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh).

^{Clive Lloyd's West Indies swept all aside in the 1980s}

Australia’s strongest side was built around Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Ponting, the two Waughs, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. They were two immense teams. But neither had quite the depth and range of talent available to India.

The current India side does not have as many all-time stars. Virat Kohli is obviously one, Rohit Sharma (in white-ball cricket) another, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja too. Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah will become great players in time but the quality and number of choices they have in all positions are unprecedented.

Take the opening pair. Rohit and Shikhar Darwan are a two-man demolition unit in ODIs. Sharma also averages over 70 opening in Tests. His partner in the brilliant Test triumph in Australia was the precocious Shubman Gill, but Mayank Agarwal is equally adept (averaging 46) and KL Rahul has also made five Test centuries opening the innings.

Cheteshwar Pujara is their human shield at No.3 (Test average 47, 18 Test hundreds) followed by Kohli, the dancing feet of Ajinka Rahane at No.5 followed by the outrageous Pant (Test average 45). Waiting in the wings (or already in the team in shorter formats) are Shreyas Iyer, Ishant Kishan and Surayakumar Yadav as well as Gill and Rahul.

Then there is an enviable list of highly-talented and multi-purpose allrounders – the Pandya brothers, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ashwin, Jadeja and Shardul Thakur, several wrist spinners to add to the likes of Sundar, Patel and Jadeja.

The list of quick bowlers headlined by Bumrah are all strong and potent – Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj and Navdeep Saini. I make it at least 25 players of international quality who are all match-winners on their day.

^{Australia were the dominant force under Steve Waugh and later Ricky Ponting's leadership}

Only two of these 25 players – Dhawan and Ashwin – are in their mid-30s (35 and 34 respectively) with the 

All of the others are 33 or younger (more than half in their twenties.) All of these men are going to be around for some time to come, and with the IPL – the catalyst for this explosion of talent – soon to expand to 10 teams, there will be even more coming through.

Currently, India are the No.1 ranked ICC Test team (one series lost at home in a decade) and second in each of the limited-overs standings. How long before they are top of all three and who will summon up the strength and skill to knock them off? This could be the start of the Indian decade of dominance.

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