India's first ever No.1 Test team and where they are today

On 6th December 2009, India achieved the No.1 ranking for the first time in the ICC Test rankings for the teams which was introduced in June 2003. An innings win against Sri Lanka at the Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium ensured Team India attained the peak rank following their 4th consecutive series victory. After eight years, India are on the top of the rankings having kept their position intact for a year and lead the team at No.2 by quite a margin. However, only one of the 11 players who were part of that 2009 Test is currently part of Indian Test squad while some of the outstanding players retired, others are out of favour. 1. Virender Sehwag: Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag. (Photo credit LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI/AFP/GettyImages) Sehwag, who scored 293 runs in that game including 284 in a single day’s play, announced his retirement in 2015 and became part of the Hindi commentary panel. The Indian opener was a part of the team that won the World Cup in 2011 but his consistent failures across all formats led to his ouster at the start of 2013. On his birthday in 2015, he officially announced retirement after several unsuccessful attempts at making a comeback to the national side. 2. Murali Vijay: Murali Vijay. (Photo Source: Twitter) Murali Vijay is the only active Test cricketer who was a part of that team. Vijay played that match in absence of the then regular opener Gautam Gambhir, who was dropped due to persistent failures. Vijay, who scored 87 in that Test, turned out to be India’s premier opener in all these years. He recently made a strong comeback from injury scoring his 10th Test century in the Nagpur Test match of the ongoing series against the Lankans. 3. Rahul Dravid: Indian batsman Rahul Dravid . (Photo credit PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP/Getty Images) Dravid, who was involved in a double century stand with Sehwag scoring 74 in the Mumbai Test, retired in 2012 following India’s overseas debacles in England and Australia. The senior player, who had played a crucial role in India’s road to No.1 played a couple of IPL seasons after his retirement and acted as coach cum player for Rajasthan Royals. He also coached the Delhi Daredevils for two seasons after the suspension of the Rajasthan franchise in 2015. Later in the same year, Dravid took up the role of the head coach of the Indian Under-19 and India A team and has a contract till 2019. 4. Sachin Tendulkar: Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar. (Photo credit Manjunath Kiran/AFP/GettyImages) Sachin Tendulkar, who saw his team reach the No.1 spot in Test cricket fulfilled his dream of winning a World Cup in 2011 on home soil. In 2012, Sachin became the first cricketer ever to complete 100 centuries in International cricket. His glorious career came to an end in front of his home crowd in a Test match in November 2013. Sachin now is involved in his role as an MP as well as other ventures he owns. He is also the owner a couple of franchises across sports league in the country. He has also been a part of the IPL franchise Mumbai Indians’ support staff as the mentor. 5. VVS Laxman: Indian batsman VVS Laxman. (Photo credit EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images) Laxman, who played a significant part in India’s wins especially with his exploits in the 2nd innings retired in 2012 after the overseas debacle along with Dravid. After featuring in the first three seasons of the IPL for his home team Deccan Chargers, Laxman was picked up Kochi Tuskers Kerala in 2011. After his retirement, Laxman joined Hyderabad’s new IPL franchise, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s coaching staff in 2013. As the mentor of the team, Laxman, along with the head coach Tom Moody, laid a strong foundation while building the team and it was evident with SRH’s triumph in 2016. The Hyderabadi batsman also joined the commentary team after his International retirement and was a part of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) appointed by the BCCI which includes Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. 6. Yuvraj Singh: Yuvraj Singh. (Photo by Marty Melville/Getty Images) Yuvraj Singh’s life and career have been a rollercoaster ride since he was a part of the team that became the No.1 in Test cricket. After being in and out in 2010, Yuvraj went on to play a major role in India’s first World Cup victory in 28 years with his all-round performances which fetched him the Man of the tournament award. He was diagnosed with cancer after playing the CWC with the deadly disease. The all-rounder made an inspirational comeback later in the same year but couldn’t recreate the expected level of performance. He featured in 2016 WT20 and ICC Champions Trophy 2017 after missing couple of years of International cricket due to poor form. However, failing to meet the fitness standards set by the Indian team put the senior player once again out of the contention recently. 7. MS Dhoni: Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. (Photo by MUNIR UZ ZAMAN/AFP/Getty Images) After leading the Indian side to No.1 spot, MS Dhoni later went on to become the India’s most successful captain ever and the longest-serving captain in International cricket. The wicketkeeper-batsman bagged all the three ICC Trophies – World T20 in 2007, CWC in 2011 and CT in 2013. Dhoni, who had a poor record in the overseas Test match in the meantime retired during their Australian tour ahead of the CWC 2015. He led the Indian side in the limited-overs cricket while Virat Kohli captained the Test team. However, at the start of 2017, Dhoni stepped down as the captain of ODI and T20I side and is currently playing under Virat. 8. Harbhajan Singh: Harbhajan Singh. (Photo Source: Harbhajan Singh Facebook Page) Like most of the other senior players, Harbhajan Singh’s International career took a dip after the CWC 2011 victory. He was the lead spinner for India before being ousted on their tour of England in 2011. The off-spinner managed to make regular comebacks to the Indian side but couldn’t regain his place. In the IPL, Harbhajan featured in ten consecutive seasons for the Mumbai Indians but couldn’t make a cut into the starting XI at the later stages of the 2017 edition. In the ongoing Ranji Trophy 2017/18 season, Harbhajan has led the Punjab team in a couple of matches. Bhajji got married to actor Geeta Basra in 2015 and is a father of a baby girl. 9. Zaheer Khan: Zaheer Khan of India. (Photo by Marty Melville/AFP/Getty Images) Despite age being on the opposite side, Zaheer Khan stood out as India’s valuable bowler even in his latter stages of his career. After being a part of the No.1 Test side, Zaheer helped India to CWC 2011 win claiming a record 21 wickets in the tournament. However, injuries put him out of the team for 2-3 years before he finally making a comeback for India’s overseas tours in 2013/14. Zaheer had decent returns on the tours of South Africa and New Zealand but once again the left-arm pacer couldn’t make it to the Indian team due to injuries. In October 2015, Zaheer finally announced his retirement from International cricket and continued to play in the IPL. He was appointed as captain of the Delhi Daredevils team in 2016 and led the team in 2017 as well. 10. Pragyan Ojha: Pragyan Ojha. (© PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP/Getty Images) If there was one player whose career went down south in the worst possible manner it was Pragyan Ojha. In absence of Harbhajan, Pragyan turned out to be the lead spinner for the Indian Test team at the start of Ravichandran Ashwin’s career. Despite the off-spinner’s rise Ojha continued to partner him in the format but all of a sudden after 2013, he never came close to being picked for the Indian team. Sachin’s final Test turned out to be the left-arm spinner’s last as well. It was a good game for him having bagged 10 wickets. With Ravindra Jadeja offering additional attributes with the bat, he was preferred ahead of Ojha and the same time left-arm had to remodel his action since it was deemed to be in the illegal range. After clearing his bowling action, Ojha made a shift to Bengal from Hyderabad to work with a better side. However, a revamp of the Hyderabad cricket structure attracted him back to his home team but not without a controversy for the transfer NOC with CAB. 11. S Sreesanth: India bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images) Sreesanth, who is famous for taking the final catch in India’s triumph in the WT20 2007, but not many speak about the important wickets he took in the 2009 Mumbai Test against Sri Lanka infact in the whole series. The pacer was part of India’s CWC 2011 campaign but what followed ended his professional career. Sreesanth, who last appeared for India in the 2011 England tour, was alleged in the spot-fixing scandal during the 2013 IPL. While playing for the Rajasthan Royals, he was arrested along with two other teammates but was later acquitted by the Delhi court. Despite the clean chit from the court, BCCI stood by their decision of banning him for life. His attempts at challenging BCCI’s decision were successful and is still aiming to make a return. In between, he turned the political way and contested in assembly elections from his constitution on a BJP ticket but that didn’t quite work his way.

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India's first ever No.1 Test team and where they are today

With an innings win against Sri Lanka at the Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium the Indian team studded with legends were at the peak of the rankings.

8. Harbhajan Singh:

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