With the one-day triangular series starting soon after four grueling Test matches, both India and Australia will have little time to take stock of their gains and losses from the test series. The balance sheet analysis will probably have to wait till after the Indian team leaves Aussie shores - but with the tour to Pakistan coming up in the not-too-distant future, the Indian think-tank cannot afford to delay going back to the drawing board for too long.

The test series Down Under has brought Sourav Ganguly’s side success and well deserved praise and has, in a sense, been their coming of age. Cynics may argue that the one-test-apiece verdict is being unnecessarily greeted with the euphoria of a series win. But it would be too simplistic to judge performance purely by the end result, and one has to appreciate the fact that Australia is by far the best team in the world and arguably the toughest country to tour. And although the final outcome is a squared series, it is commendable that most of the laurels will be coming home with the men in blue.

Resting on these laurels, however, would be the biggest mistake the Indians could make and no one would be more aware of this than themselves. Undoubtedly, the test series has thrown up many more positives than negatives for them, but whether the side can make the leap from being a good competitive side to consistent world beaters will depend on how the gains are built upon and how the weaknesses are addressed in the months ahead.

With a total of 1780 runs in four tests at an awesome average of almost 81, one would have to say that the most significant gain from the tour has been the colossal appetite for runs exhibited by India’s star-studded middle order of Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman and Ganguly and the re-affirmation of their class which came with that. Anil Kumble’s rich haul of 24 wickets in three tests was suitable reward for his persistence with the ball and showed that he is still a crucial member of the side with a few more fruitful years of test cricket left in him. With an eye on the future, however, one must say that the most heartening outcomes of the Australian trip are the emergence of a talented new left arm fast bowler and the formation of a stable, young opening pair.

Paceman Irfan Pathan played only two tests, but has already shown the ability to swing the ball both ways and seems to possess a good aggressive head on his young shoulders. His fielding is sharp and his batting skills well above the ordinary, and if nurtured carefully in the months and years to come he could prove to be a valuable asset to Indian cricket. Meanwhile at the top of the order, the dour defence of Aakash Chopra coupled with the derring-do of Virender Sehwag might have appeared as chalk and cheese, but their consistent blunting of the new ball paved the way for the dashing batsmen to follow and augurs well for the future. Sehwag’s destructive batting ability is no secret and when he gets in for a couple of sessions, like he did during his delightful 195 at Melbourne, he can tear even the best bowling attacks to shreds. Chopra is the ideal foil to Sehwag, and his sensible shot selection and solid technique in hostile conditions can only be good news for Indian cricket.

Now for some of the bad news: two major issues which have persistently plagued Indian cricket in the last few years still remain unsolved. The quest for a quality wicket-keeper is yet to end, thanks to some costly slip-ups by young Parthiv Patel. The solution is not to look for a replacement forthwith, but lies instead in attending to some of the deficiencies in Patel’s keeping technique. The lad is worth investing in because he has shown some rare pluck as a batsman and if his work behind the sticks improves he could also be looked at as a member of the one-day international eleven. At the same time, Ajay Ratra mustn’t be forgotten altogether (by the way, does anybody know why he fell out of favour in the first place?) and if Deep Dasgupta is to be taken on tour he must be given a chance to prove himself.

The other issue which needs to be urgently addressed is the lack of a quality all-rounder. It is a problem that creeps up during every tournament India plays and it’s quite shocking that there doesn’t seem to be any even remotely viable solution in sight. Perhaps the reason we have not found an all-rounder is because no one has seriously looked for one. Every claimant to the slot has either been a batsman who can bowl a bit or a bowler who can bat - not a genuine all-rounder in the Kapil or Shastri mould.

Ajit Agarkar has matured into a penetrative and mean quickie in the last year but his performances with the bat have been far from inspiring; picking him as the so-called ‘all-rounder’ is only fooling ourselves and means that the best batting lineup in the world is followed by an embarrassingly long and incompetent tail. Sanjay Bangar is a possible candidate but he has not come up with anything special in the opportunities he has received thus far and frankly at 31 he isn’t getting any younger. Just like they specifically look for players to fill the opener’s and wicket-keeper’s slots, the selectors must launch an aggressive search for a long-term prospect with genuine talents in both departments of the game and pick him for the number seven position.

Finally, a word on Sourav Ganguly’s captaincy. The Prince of Calcutta deserves most of the credit for the way this team has developed into a winning unit. His contribution can be estimated from the fact that the core of the present team is essentially the same as the one which toured Australia in ’99-00, but he and coach John Wright have transformed them from a bunch of cricketers with undoubted talent but suspect motivation, into a focused set of professionals desperate to excel. What is refreshing about him is that he bothers only about his team and himself and doesn’t seem to care two hoots about what the rest of the world (especially the Aussie media) thinks of him. He is clearly only interested in winning cricket matches and not popularity contests, as some of his predecessors at the helm seemed to do quite effortlessly.

If Sourav has a weakness as a captain then it is that, for a naturally aggressive cricketer, he is surprisingly lax when it comes to preventing the game from drifting. Too often he seems shy of taking the initiative and wringing in some adventurous bowling changes or imaginative field placements when nothing seems to be happening. This was exemplified on the final day of the fourth test at Sydney, when Steve Waugh and Simon Katich were content in seeing out Kumble and company and inching safely towards a draw. For some reason, Ganguly seemed reluctant to take a chance and hand the ball to Sachin Tendulkar, who is not only a crafty customer with his mixed bag of leg breaks, seamers and googlies but had also had a dream game with the bat. With a little more experience and success under his belt, one hopes that Ganguly adopts a more innovative and pro-active approach to captaincy and take the game by the scruff of its neck when it deserves to be.

An important factor in favour of Ganguly and his colleagues is that they are either peaking right now or are a couple of years away from their best. The average age of the side is under 26 years (in stark contrast with Australia’s average of 31) which indicates that they have several years of quality cricket left in them. They have made an admirable beginning this Aussie summer and if they work on their shortcomings and develop their obvious strengths, it would be hard to prevent the next few years from belonging to Indian cricket.