Lokesh Rahul, who hit two half-centuries in the deciding Dharamsala Test against Australia, on Thursday, jumped 11 places to a career-high rank of 11th in the latest ICC chart for Test batsmen.
Bharat shone during his 158-minute stay in the middle
Cheteshwar Pujara scored the 27th first-class century of his career and the first one in county cricket as Derbyshire seized the initiative against Leicestershire in a Division Two encounter in Derby.
Of all the things that went right in the Test series opener against New Zealand, Cheteshwar Pujara's transformation from an obdurate accumulator of runs to a free-scoring batsman when needed must be the most pleasing for India captain Virat Kohli.
Not just the 40 points, India will also be eyeing a 3-0 whitewash in the Gandhi-Mandela series.
Senior India pace bowler Zaheer Khan and prolific batsman Cheteshwar Pujara left Mumbai by an early morning flight to South Africa along with three other players well ahead of the two-Test series against the hosts.
India's Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara on Thursday admitted that playing day-night Tests is an altogether different challenge for the batsman as the pace and visibility of the pink ball is very different from the traditional red ball.
India opener Prithvi Shaw is likely to retain his place in the playing eleven for the second Test against New Zealand, starting Saturday, while Ravindra Jadeja may replace Ravichandran Ashwin.
To keep their minds off the Pune disaster, the team went on a hike at Tamhini Ghat on Monday, and the trek to the Western Ghats seemed to have brought out their inner Platos and Ramanujas.
Jasprit Bumrah will have to squeeze every ounce of energy from his already overworked body, while Ajinkya Rahane will hope to get one final chance to save his international career when India take on England in the fifth and final Test, chasing a historic series win, in Manchester on Friday.
If India goes on to win the inaugural ICC World Test Championship title, it could prove to be the watershed moment for the revival of the longest format just like the 2007 World T20 triumph did for the popularity of the shortest format, said Cheteshwar Pujara.
The Indian team took to the nets at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday with all of their players going through a rigorous training session.
In all likelihood, vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane would get another chance but over the past two years, his inconsistency has hurt this team badly.
'I think that was the difference in the first Test where KL Rahul went on to get a hundred for us and we ended up on the winning side.'
Images from Day 3 of the third Test between South Africa and India, in Cape Town, on Thursday.
Vihari, Gill and Iyer have all played Tests for India in the absence of regular players and Rohit said a decision on the composition of the side against Sri Lanka was yet to be made.
Who do you should be part of India's playing XI for the first Test against Sri Lanka?
Bess impressed in his maiden outing on Indian soil
With two senior pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar (thigh injury) and Ishant Sharma (side strain) all but ruled out, Navdeep Saini will certainly be the fourth pacer after Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Umesh Yadav.
West Zone produced a clinical all-round performance to score a comprehensive 133-run victory over North Zone in the final and win their third successive Deodhar Trophy in Visakhapatnam on Thursday. Riding on Kedar Devdhar's 94 and skipper Cheteshwar Pujara's patient half-century, West Zone posted a challenging 281 for 3 in 50 overs. Spinners Arpit Vasavada (3-20) and Akshar Patel (2-23) then emerged the pick of the bowlers as North Zone were bundled out for 148 in 37.1 overs at the Y S Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium.
'Going forward, they might need 4-6 weeks to get going themselves. It's a tough job and if you are bowling 140-150 kmph, running about 25 yards to bowl one ball at a time and then keep bowling for a few overs.'
The performance of openers Rohit Sharma and K L Rahul has been the biggest plus for India in the batting department. Both have showed remarkable temperament and technique in testing conditions to give the team a solid start.
Sharma and Yadav have launched their campaign for Australia.
Virat Kohli shouldn't give up on the drives through the off-side which has got him loads of runs but he does need to be judicious while choosing the right delivery for the shot, said India's batting coach Vikram Rathour.
Some of the Indian players, including captain Virat Kohli, coach Ravi Shastri and members of the support staff also landed in Chennai -- where the first two Tests will be played.
Opener Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara batted superbly to make centuries on Day 2 of the 2nd Test in Nagpur on Saturday. Here are the statistical highlights from the day's play.
IMAGES from Day 1 of the second Test between South Africa and India, in Johannesburg, on Monday.
India's formidably consistent match-winners have a date with history in the New Year when they take on an out-of-sorts South Africa in the second Test in Johannesburg from Monday in pursuit of a coveted first-ever series win in the Rainbow Nation.
As expected, the Indian selectors decided to stick with the same 16-member squad, which beat Bangladesh in the one-off Test, for the first two matches of the forthcoming four-match Test series against Australia, starting in Pune, on February 23.
'Our plan was simple, stick to our basics'
While Cheteshwar Pujara scored 4, 12 not out and 9 in the three innings he batted on the ongoing England tour, Ajinkya Rahane managed just 5 and 1 in the two innings he played.
The three-day practice game will give a chance for the players who are already in the West Indies to shift from limited overs to the five-day format.
The team has five stand-bys in Priyank Panchal, KS Bharat, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shahbaz Nadeem and Rahul Chahar.
In the batsmen's rankings, Cheteshwar Pujara is the top-ranked Indian at the fourth position while opener Shikhar Dhawan climbed 21 places to be ranked 39th.
Half-centuries by Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravichandran Ashwin kept India on course for a first innings lead after England made a spirited comeback on day two of the third Test on Sunday. - Scorecard: Having bowled out England for 283 earlier in the morning, India looked in charge at 148-2 at tea before Adil Rashid's double strike jolted the hosts who lost three wickets in 19 balls to slump to 156-5.
India have a real shot at winning their first ever away series against South Africa,
'To be fair to curators, they hardly got time to prepare the wicket. They had a Ranji season here and it was pretty late that it was decided the game will be shifted from Dharamsala. They did not get enough time.'
Ahead of the WTC Final next month, former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting opened up on India and Australia's chances for the big game.
Smith (900 points) is placed second behind New Zealand captain Kane Williamson (919).
Washington and pacer Avesh Khan, who are both set to fly back home due to injury, played for the County XI in India's only warm up game ahead of the first Test beginning August 4.
