No time for losers...

All the signs were there. An uninterested India scraped through their warm up match against Somerset - a loss only prevented by a tactical decision to not enforce the follow-on, and focus on getting the England captain into form rather than India's batsmen. Sachin could only be bothered to field for a short time, Zaheer was carrying a spare tyre, the international bowlers could get nothing out of a familiar looking pitch, and the international batsmen threw their wickets away like it was going out of fashion! So, er, not a great start...

Prior to the Test series I was confident of an England win, however 4-0 was out of the question. Firstly, would we get four full matches in? Secondly, England are good - but are they that good? Finally, India are number 1 so they'll put up a struggle.

WRONG!!

Even the most optimistic and faithful England fan would've been sitting there waiting for India to, well, get good. They were lucky that Dravid was bothered, otherwise each match would've been over by day 3! And I won't accept the standard argument from India fans that they had too many injuries. You were the number 1 side, you should have plenty of strength in depth - y'know, like England! Had Indian players not focused on the IPL or comfort eating during their time off then they'd have fared much better. I'd also suggest that either Dhoni needs some serious keeping practice, or that India find someone who can cope with seaming and swinging conditions - it speaks volumes that his very part-time bowling was better than his wicketkeeping! He only just redeemed himself towards the end of the series by getting some runs... I won't go into his iffy captaincy now, other than to say that he's definitely not "one of the greatest captains ever".

But back to the series. Let's look at the facts:

• England took 80 wickets in the series - i.e. the most they could possibly get;
• India only took 47 wickets - and 20 of them were in one match;
• India only reached 300 once, and that was in the final Test;
• Three England batsmen each scored a double hundred - there were four further centuries;
• Dravid scored all three of the hundreds made by Indian batsmen;
• Seven of England's batsmen averaged over 50 in the series;
• Only one Indian batsman (you guessed it, Rahul Dravid) averaged above 50;
• England's bowlers recorded four five wicket hauls - two of which were 6-fers;
• Only Praveen Kumar ended up with a single 5-fer for India.

Oh, and England's margins of victory were MASSIVE!!

India didn't play like they were world number 1, except when they managed to bowl England out for 221 at Trent Bridge - but they couldn't even keep going from there.

England fully deserve to be at number 1; they're ruthless, have great strength in depth, and actually look like they want to be playing a Test match!

I was actually quite bullish before the series, taking on any India fan that dared criticise England, and consequently I got extremely impatient for the contest to begin. It has been like a dream (except for the selectors continuing to back the useless Bopara) - it feels so satisfying to be smug and say to all the deluded India fans that have crossed me:

4-0.

P.S. Even when we get to India's specialist subject of Twenty20 they STILL can't get a win against their hosts. Granted, it was the closest they've come to beating England on the tour so far - but it didn't happen. Better luck in the ODI series, World Champions!