Still looking for his first victory in India as captain of Australia, Ricky Ponting and his selectors have plenty to think about ahead of the upcoming Ashes series this winter.

Interestingly it is the first time that Australia have lost three Tests in a row since 1988 and the once mighty Australia are now ranked below England in the ICC standings, with India firmly cemented in top spot.

Despite England’s form this season, fears of an Australian backlash in the Ashes series is a very real prospect and nothing can be taken for granted by the English team.

As for India, they have no such problems, having introduced debutant Cheteshwar Pujara to the Test match he scored 72 runs to put India on their way to victory on a testing final day wicket, while veterans Tendulkar and Dravid completed the formalities in emphatic style.

The Australian bowlers appeared to have no response to the free scoring Indian batsmen on the final day of the Test and the experienced Tendulkar and Dravid were given the time to pick and choose their run opportunities seemingly at will.

On this performance there is little doubt that India are in superb form throughout the team and they have oozed confidence in this second Test match, sensing that victory was there for the taking and moving in for the kill as if Australia were a wounded animal.

Tendulkar, who scored the winning runs for India was named man of the match and man of the series, having scored a massive 403, an average of 134.5.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting accepted defeat with some dignity saying; “It has been a great series to be a part of as a player, but our second innings batting wasn’t of the standard it needed to be to win the Test match. Deep down I felt we needed a few more runs. Hilfenhaus and Johnson have been exceptional and Shane Watson has been very good at the top of the order. But the rest of us have been a little bit inconsistent.”

Second Test, Bangalore, day five:
India 495 & 207-3 bt Australia 478 & 223 by seven wickets

rahul dravid

Rahul Dravid’s 144 runs for India in the second day of the second test against Sri Lanka in Kanpur took him past Australian Allan Border’s 11,174 runs in Test cricket and into fourth place in the all time scorers list.

Dravid sits behind his Indian team mate Sachin Tendulkar, West Indies’ Brian Lara and the current leader Australian captain Ricky Ponting on the list.

It was also Dravid’s 28th test century, coming in an innings in which India’s two opening batsmen had already scored well over a century each themselves, Sehwag getting 131 and Gambhir a brilliant 167, as the home side built an impressive lead.

India did finally succumb to the bowling of Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath who claimed five of the last six wickets as India finished on 642 all out. It might have been worse for Sri Lanka but at last the wicket appeared to be showing signs of some turn and the spin bowler Herath was able to take advantage.

Things did get worse for Sri Lanka as they came out to bat, Zaheer Khan took the wicket of Tillakaratne Dilshan, before Sri Lanka had scored a run. But the visitors rallied and finished the day on 66 for 1, with both  Paranavitana and  Sangakkara on 30 not out.