England eye No 1 spot in Test ranking

England head into the third Test against India at Edgbaston on Wednesday knowing another victory will give them both an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the four-match series and see them replace their opponents at the top of the ICCs Test Championship table.Not that Ashes-winning England captain Andrew Strauss is about to abandon the pragmatic approach that has served him so well.All we are looking to do is turn up at Edgbaston and try and win that Test match, he said.India, beset by injuries, have rarely had their best team on the field and came straight into the series on the back of a tour of the Caribbean with just one practice match in English conditions.But the fact Indian authorities have not given their side the best chance to succeed in what was billed as one of the showpiece series of the year is hardly Englands fault.What cannot be denied is Strausss men have played some excellent cricket during a 196-run first Test win at Lords that was followed by an even more emphatic 319-run success at Trent Bridge.Their bowlers have prevented the much-vaunted Indian batting line-up, albeit one where dynamic opener Virender Sehwag has only just joined the squad following shoulder surgery, from once getting to 300 in four innings.Meanwhile Englands batting depth has proved too much for an India attack where left-arm quick Zaheer Khans series came to an end midway through his 14th over at Lords.Its a mental thing as well because for some of us its been a seven-match Test series with hardly any gap, admitted India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the wicketkeeper/batsman, who looked close to both physical and mental exhaustion at Trent Bridge.Medium-pacer Praveen Kumar has done his best to shoulder a heavy workload but with off-spinner Harbhajan Singh breaking down with a series-ending stomach injury at Trent Bridge, recalled England seamer Tim Bresnan made 90 batting at No 8 before taking a Test-best five for 44 with the ball.