Sachin: India must regain top Test place

When England travel to India later this year, they will need to be on their game because the home side will not be looking for revenge, but rather to get back to the top of Test cricket.

So says Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar, who was part of the side that lost eight Tests in a row against England and Australia last year. While he would like to get one over on the Three Lions this November, he is more concerned about regaining pride for the Test team.

England are the current number one Test side, followed by South Africa, Australia and then India. The sub-continent side are five ranking points behind England, who are level with the Proteas on 116.

The Little Master told NDTV: “It’s not about revenge (the home series against England). It’s taking pride to play for India and for me that is really important.

“It (revenge) can be against any other nation but I take lot of pride in playing for India. That’s what matters to me. It doesn’t matter with whom we play. As long as we produce quality performance expected from us, that is important.

“For four years, I mean post-2007 World Cup till the 2011 World Cup, we played quality cricket and got to No 1 ranking. No 1 ranking does not happen overnight. It takes some time and only when you produce good cricket for number of years. We were able to get there but slipped down. It’s important to again get back there.”

India won the 2011 World Cup, and some have suggested that the Test losses were due to lack of concentration and over-confidence, but Tendulkar, who scored his 100th century this year, denied this.

The 39-year-old said: “I wouldn’t say that World Cup victory had something to do with that (losses in England and Australia) and the players became complacent or over-confident. It was nothing like that.

“We all know our responsibilities. You go out there to perform well but sometimes it just does not work. They have been tough tours for us and we need to regroup ourselves and take stronger steps forward and see to it that these performances don’t get repeated.”

He added: “It was really difficult to digest all those things. You have a huge responsibility when you go out there and look to win every match. But that’s not possible. It’s equally important that we perform well and live up to our own expectations.”

India have a busy home schedule in the upcoming months, as aside from the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka in September, they have series against New Zealand in August and then the England visit from November to January 2013.