Ishant Sharma urges young India to secure No.1 Test ranking

India had already won the 4-match Test series 2-0 against West Indies, with one match to go. But the visitors will be looking forward to winning the fourth and final Test match of the series, as it helps the Indian team to topple Australia from the top spot in the ICC Test rankings.

Speaking to bcci.tv, Indian pacer Ishant Sharma revealed that the team’s focus will to win the Test match and move the top spot. “We have won the series but the fourth Test is still to be played. Test cricket is such a format where you can never be complacent.”

“We lead 2-0. But if win the next match, we will be the No.1 Test team in the world and there can be nothing better than that. This is a young team and we want to reach there (top spot). When we play the fourth Test, we will look to dominate, score runs, bowl the opposition out and win the Test,” he said.

Speaking about the third Test at St. Lucia, he said that the declaration came at the right time and praised the bowling effort by all the bowlers as India bowled out Windies cheaply in the fourth innings.

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“The plan was to score quickly and declare early. We wanted to bowl about 80 overs and discussed that in the team meeting. The results are out there for everyone to see as we stuck to our plans and executed them very well. The bowling group showed a lot of patience and discipline. We wanted to hit the right lengths and were ready to be patient to get those wickets,” explained Ishant, who picked 3 wickets in that match.

It was a 5-wicket haul from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, which helped India to have a huge lead in the first innings. “You saw how Bhuvneshwar Kumar ran through the line-up in just one spell and got five wickets in the first innings. If one bowler can do it, it is possible for others to do it too. We were confident. If you have to win a Test, you have to take 20 wickets and in the second innings, all the bowlers chipped in,” he concluded.