After breaching and conquering the seemingly impregnable frontier Down Under, India will now look to establish supremacy in home conditions over England in the four-match test series starting next month.
At stake is a spot in the ICC World Test Championship Final, as the top two teams in the standings will feature in the clash in June this year.
In an amendment to the ICC Test Championship points system due to the cancellation of multiple series due to Covid-19, teams are now ranked according to the total percentage of points earned out of the total points available, rather than the aggregate number of points.
After winning the 4th Test versus Australia at Brisbane, India is at the top of the heap with 71.7 PCT and is marginally better placed than New Zealand.
England meanwhile is in the fourth position and has just an outside chance of making it into the top two. To make the cut, they must look to win the ongoing second test against Sri Lanka and then hope for a sterling result versus India. Australia is in third place and they await the outcome of the fate of the proposed 3 test series versus South Africa.
Meanwhile, India and England have already announced their squads for the first two tests to be played at Chennai.
The visitors get a shot in the arm with the return of Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer to the side. With the experienced James Anderson, Stuart Broad, and Chris Woakes also in the squad, there are enough options in the pace department.
But spin is what wins you matches in India, especially at the Chepauk.
Given the form of spinners Jack Leach and Dom Bess who picked up five-wicket hauls each in the first Test at Galle versus Sri Lanka, England did not miss Moeen Ali at all. Moeen had tested positive for the coronavirus on reaching Sri Lanka and therefore missed the series. But he is in the squad touring India and his experience of Indian conditions will come in handy.
The batting department is where England will rely heavily on Joe Root. The England captain got a sturdy double-hundred in the Galle test just recently, and that shows how well he is prepared for tackling the spin-friendly conditions in the subcontinent. The problem for England may lie in how well the other less experienced top-order batsmen like Rory Burns, Dom Sibley, and Zak Crawley adapt to these conditions.
Otherwise, the additional burden may fall on the experienced shoulders of Root, Butler, and Stokes to steady the ship for the visitors.
The writer is a Sports Broadcaster and Cricket Commentator who has worked on assignments for leading sports networks in India & Abroad.
