Well the guys who were giving reasons about SL injuries, SL's fatigue, SL's missing key players, decisions going against SL, Kohli's success can't be counted and thousands of other nonsense reasons were saying that this win (i.e against SL) counts for nothing in reality ... because according to them India cannot play cricket and it was proved last summer which is final for them, and they had seen India losing 4-0 in last two series in Aus and ENG.

The line " they forget all the form issues, injuries, mid match injuries, decisions that went against India at crucial junctions, key players missing the entire series, conditions etc ... " was for them it clearly says they , because these were the same reasons those guys were giving now for SL losing.

Strange only fools can give such a pathetic one side reasoning when it suits them. Anyway it was matter about people posting things in other sites ... who just vent hate against India. Anyway I am damn sure that the same guys will applaud if any other team wins against SL in SL.All of a sudden winning at SL in SL will become a great achievement, but when India does it , it's not.

also mystery isn't wrong, if someone says "to me nothing counts" then why does he mention this... " they forget all the form issues, injuries, mid match injuries, decisions that went against India at crucial junctions, key players missing the entire series, conditions etc ... " It means all this count for him, at least to some extent. They may be part and parcel of the game as you say but you are considering them to be reasons for defeats at least to some extent.

To put the record straight , essence of what I wrote 

By the way I had lot of free time yesterday and was hopping various discussion forums and sites, I could see that lot of people said that playing and winning against a team like SL does not count a bit, it seems they can't play abroad as they lost 4-0 in Eng and Aus.

I find it strange, India drew the last series in SA, infact even the earlier tours to ENG (won) and Aus (close contest 2-1)  they were good enough. Now all that is forgotten and only these two series are taken as benchmark ... they forget all the form issues, injuries, mid match injuries, decisions that went against India at crucial junctions, key players missing the entire series, conditions etc ... well I considered all that to be part and parcel of game. Simple , to me nothing counts ... India did not deserve to win because they played badly during that 6-8 months period. 

Then why I say this ? - I find this strange pick and choose yardstick policy to undermine India's achievement

1. They do not count SA tour results, but only latest Eng and Aus 

2. They do not give credit to victory against SL , but consider Rohit's recent failure against them, while forget last year he was averaging higher 50's

3. They consider Rohit's failure against SL, but say Kohli can be judged if and only if he delivers such performance against Eng,Aus and SA ... funny and foolish again.

4. For a change (very strange!) few decisions went in India's favor, and all the people started saying India got lucky, if that is the case where were they when majority of decisions where going against them ( inspite of technology help in snicko's and hotspot), seems like India can get decisions against them coz they don't want DRS ... very foolish that.

5. Opposition key players like Sanga and Kula's injuries are all considered as reason for India's success.

6. Even the opposition's fatigue factor is considered.( while they completely forgot India's schedule to and post world cup leading to those two forgettable tours)

7. When India was No 1 - infact close to 24 months, they were great ... home or abroad. At the end of their reign, they lost to England and lost the rankings immediately, atleast while they were at the top they were supreme. I remember all the guys saying that India played more at home and became No 1. It seems no one is watching what is happening recently, there is not word about it.

8. Age old problem, no matter how other team's bowling gets hammered n number of times, if India in one match performs badly in death overs , suddenly weakest Indian bowling concept comes up.

Maybe highest standards of performance yardsticks apply only to India.

His scores in current series and CB series in Australia are as below:

4, 4, 0, 0, 5, 68, 4, DNB, 0, 15, 33, 10, 21 = 165 runs in 12 innings at an average of 13.75... as Spinny has rightly said, there is plenty of competition for places in Indian side, and with those scores it is difficult to have you in the side.

India rise to No.2 in the ranking, however I'm absolutely sure that within a day or two when the rankings will be revised, India or South Africa will become No.1 team in the world, Australia are absolutely certain to lose out on that No.1 spot.

                     

            Now that they have started to focus on next World Cup in Austraia-NZ , slowly they are trying to think about bowling all rounder like Irfan who could be handy in those conditions. Moreover , Irfan has got his form/swing back only in last few months and rightly was awarded chance. Good that his hard work has been rewarded in this series. Bringing him sooner would have been disaster to him and to the team, Infact he himself in some interview had said that he was working on trying to get his swing back and add little pace. However Irfan should be careful , should not pick up wrong technique/action over extended season(like he did last time). Praveen and Vinay have always been standout performers even in domestic conditions, so they will also keep getting chances in rotation basis.

Zak will be around 36 by next world cup , god willing if he can keep his body fit he would be able to play, but it cannot be left for chance, there has to be an alternative. Either of Ishant, Umesh,Aaron have to take up the skills from him to fill that slot as strike bowler.  

            Rohit has had a series to forget, but I know that our Indian selectors are not fools to forget all his good performances last year. He should actually be getting his long due Test debut , but at a wrong time he has string of bad patch which makes it very difficult & tricky for selectors. Last year he was in a rich vein of form, he was not in the pecking order to get selected ( that was the only time our selectors did a blunder in selection).

Selectors should simply shut up the nonsense media who keep poking their nose and give Rohit a chance in Test matches, even Kohli took few tests to settle in zone. Now that RD has quit , either give option to Rohit or Pujara and give them 6 matches on a trot and then take a call. For sure Laxman's spot is also going to be vacated soon, I assume about a year at the max. Rohit and Pujara would fit in really well.

Good point mystery, SLN are indeed like India's domestic team, whenever you feel like beating someone play a series against them, I don't know when was the last time SLN won a bilateral against India, may be decades back.

Nothing to be taken away from India though, they have played good cricket, SLN dropped far too many catches and some umpiring decisions also went against them, India, as expected, have won the series easily. I don't often predict things in T20's but just get a feeling that SLN will somehow pull that one off.

India looking good though, 169/3 and going strong. BTW this guy Nuwan Pradeep is good, he is really good, got good pace as well.

extremely good player is Virat but I won't go as far as comparing him to Ricky Ponting as yet mystery, Ricky has proved himself over a long period of time, Virat will have to do that too, I think most of Virat's centuries have come against SLN, doesn't mean I'm taking away one bit from what he has achieved but he will have to score hundreds against stronger attacks like South Africa, England, Pakistan etc... more often to be called as a future great.

 

Dada and MSD scored 183 before they were successful captains. Kohli has scored the magic number now we just have to wait for his turn

A meaningless series has a meaningless game left... IND have been good this series, have looked like regaining their confidence, I expect India to continue this good work against NZL, and perhaps even ENG< considering how poorly ENG fared against PAK on the subcontinental wickets and their recent record in India, their real challenge though, I believe, will come later in the year when they clash against arch-rivals Pakistan in an LOI series at home. (That is apart from the challenge they'll face in the WT20)

Irrespective of Rohit's problems, India look all set to win the series tomorrow.

SLN have lost Sanga to a hairline fracture, so for them winning this series has become doubly difficult now, come tuesday and India would fancy wrapping this up... one man who can get wrapped up though is Rohit Sharma, poor guy can't buy a run this year, and has an average of 17 in his last 13 innings! Nothing against Sharma, but I Can't believe the likes of Tiwary and Rahane have been kept out of the side, if someone is not in form sometimes it's good for him to get dropped, he can focus and come back stronger.

The other possible reason is that Zaheer Khan hasn't been in his magical form either

The worst thing for India is that both these impact players are ageing and don't really look like they'll bounce back, and the replacements aren't showing promise at the moment.

Series locked at 1-1 with 3 to go, this should be fun!