11 consecutive series wins at home
More than the great Windies and the great Aussies now.
This streak at home is now truly etched in history.
Trolls may say whatever it's an official record now
[MENTION=79064]MMHS[/MENTION] [MENTION=131701]Mamoon[/MENTION] @Gurgaon [MENTION=129948]Bilal7[/MENTION] [MENTION=53290]Markhor[/MENTION]
Indeed a great achievement. But, I don't think it's fair to compare this record with different era simply because these days the touring teams get very little time to acclimatize and there are lot more 2/3 Test series played which doesn't give touring side much time to fight back. Quality of opponents are also an issue - apart from AUS & ENG, rest teams are Test minnows these days away from home and more so in India. The only team that could have made a fight with IND in IND was Misbah's PAK with YK and the two spinners at prime, but that series never took place.
Also, as I have mentioned many times in other threads - this is the era when ICC has tried their best to ensure as much overs are possible in a Test which has allowed the better team (IND) to force direct result; otherwise Azhar's team also dominated home series (I believe between 1987 PAK to 2000 SAF, IND didn't lose a home series), but few of the Tests ended in draws for lack of time and the capability of teams bailing out a draw was much better in just about 10-12 years back - more preciously before the game being glorified by the Royal version. Having said that, it's a wonderful achievement never the less and I believe it'll continue for two more years at least.
The title of this thread is about the reason (of this dominance) - apart from usual, I must say two factors are critical for this success: Test focus and playing specialists. Despite IPL glitters, BCCI has kept their priority intact and promoted Test matches as much as possible - money obviously is a factor but we can also say that instead of playing 15-16 Tests per year, had IND played 8-9 Tests and converted those other Tests in to T20I or prolonged IPL - money bag would have been fatter. And, the second reason no one probably had noticed that despite lots of selection controversies, IND has kept Test cricket simple - 11 players for their purpose on specialist role including WK Saha or No. 3 Pujara or opener Muruli Vijay. Even their "all-rounders" are specialist all-rounders (Ashwin & Jadeja are among ATG all-rounders on Indian home stats).
Third factor, which should be mentioned that unlike previous Captains, Kohli is hungry for the win and he doesn't allow the game to drift, has forced the groundsmen to ensure wickets that produces direct results certainly and IND being the better side at home, if all 5 Tests ends in result, at worst IND will win 3. In olden days, Gavaskar led few 5/6 Test series - IND winning the 1st one and rest 4/5 were absolute pain ...., not with Kohli.
