2015 Final Test Rankings - Steve Smith #1, Williamson #2, Voges #11

[Daemon]

Bairstow is somehow higher than Burns

 

[weldone]

Congrats to Smitteh back to his rightful position, let the pretenders drop back







Smith ends 2015 as Test cricket's No.1 | cricket.com.au

Congrats to Ashwin claiming his rightful position, let the pretenders drop back

Jadeja no. 6 test bowler . . . puts the deservedness of Ashwin's no. 1 ranking under doubt. Playing as a spinner regularly on the pitches India have been dishing and anyone would dominate.

Steyn, Broad et al unlucky

Voges no. 11 test batsman . . . puts the deservedness of Smith's no. 1 ranking under doubt. Playing as a batsman regularly on the pitches Australia have been dishing and anyone would dominate.

Williamson, AB et al unlucky

 

[indiaholic]

India could prepare a decent pitch if they wanted to. Its not so much Australia is better but some others are worse. Its not like match after match in Australia is drawn.

Lol, work harder at your baiting skills. Never said Australian pitches suck. I just said they are the easiest pitches to bat on. Australia prepares pitches to favour its abilities and India prepares pitches that will assist them.

 

[Flem274*]

Hmm, this conjures up so many possible fitting adjectives...

Desperate? Contemptible? Odious? Feeble?

all of the above

no surprises the little aussies are out in force

 

[Gob]

Voges no. 11 test batsman . . . puts the deservedness of Smith's no. 1 ranking under doubt. Playing as a batsman regularly on the pitches Australia have been dishing and anyone would dominate.

Williamson, AB et al unlucky

This could have been a such a great post had Williamson not scored half of his career runs in Australia this summer.

 

[TNT]

Voges no. 11 test batsman . . . puts the deservedness of Smith's no. 1 ranking under doubt. Playing as a batsman regularly on the pitches Australia have been dishing and anyone would dominate.

Williamson, AB et al unlucky

Williamson is unlucky, his batting in Australia has bought down his average, its 144 in NZ.

NZ seems like a dream place to bat this year, Guptil only averaged 13 in Australia but averages 63 in NZ

Even McCullum who managed to average 27 in Australia is averaging 30 in NZ this year.

 

[Teja.]

Rahane went from being ranked 27 to 11 after the twin tons in the last test of the SA series.

Here's hoping he'll end 2016 in the top 3.

 

[weldone]

Rahane went from being ranked 27 to 11 after the twin tons in the last test of the SA series.

Here's hoping he'll end 2016 in the top 3.

I think Rahane has it in him to stay in top 5 for a period of 5 years.

 

[Gob]

India is probably the hardest place to tour now and this got me thinking what would be the ROW XI to win a test series there?

Cook*
Younis
Williamson
Smith
AB+
Root
Mathews
Broad
Lyon
Anderson
Yasir

looks ok.

 

[weldone]

India is probably the hardest place to tour now and this got me thinking what would be the ROW XI to win a test series there?

Cook*
Younis
Williamson
Smith
AB+
Root
Mathews
Broad
Lyon
Anderson
Yasir

looks ok.

need more Pakistanis imo

In fact, I think if the first-choice Pakistan XI comes to India (with Yasir Shah), and India persist with the SA series-like pitches then it will be a very close contest and Pakistan may just win the series in the end. Ashwin is slightly better than Yasir, and Indian support spinners are better than their counterparts. But Pakistanis have the better pace attack. And most importantly, the current Pakistani batsmen in general are MUCH better at playing spin than current Indian batsmen. We have no batsman as good against quality spin as Younis, Misbah, Hafeez, Azhar and Asad except Murali Vijay and maybe Pujara to an extent.

 

[Spark]

Yeah you gotta pick Misbah in that side, one way or another.

 

[harsh.ag]

India is probably the hardest place to tour now and this got me thinking what would be the ROW XI to win a test series there?

Cook*
Younis
Williamson
Smith
AB+
Root
Mathews
Broad
Lyon
Anderson
Yasir

looks ok.

need more Pakistanis imo

In fact, I think if the first-choice Pakistan XI comes to India (with Yasir Shah), and India persist with the SA series-like pitches then it will be a very close contest and Pakistan may just win the series in the end. Ashwin is slightly better than Yasir, and Indian support spinners are better than their counterparts. But Pakistanis have the better pace attack. And most importantly, the current Pakistani batsmen in general are MUCH better at playing spin than current Indian batsmen. We have no batsman as good against quality spin as Younis, Misbah, Hafeez, Azhar and Asad except Murali Vijay and maybe Pujara to an extent.

Maybe this batting line up:

Cook
Younus
KW
Smith
AB
Misbah
Sarfraz +

Azhar Ali maybe in place of someone here.

 

[Spark]

I'd rather open with Williamson than Younus tbh.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Lol, work harder at your baiting skills. Never said Australian pitches suck. I just said they are the easiest pitches to bat on. Australia prepares pitches to favour its abilities and India prepares pitches that will assist them.

do people actually think that? Sad state of ignorance

The pitches are just the way they are, and if the players have "evolved"/selected for to suit those conditions then that's that.

Not even remotely similar to deliberately preparing dustbowls because you know the touring side has better fast bowlers/not as good spinners or at playing spin.

 

[Spark]

I don't really see how the pitches in the last two summers have really "helped" our strengths tbh, which is fast bowling. The team definitely would have preferred pitches with more pace and bounce in them, as opposed to the roadiest of roads.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Williamson is unlucky, his batting in Australia has bought down his average, its 144 in NZ.

NZ seems like a dream place to bat this year, Guptil only averaged 13 in Australia but averages 63 in NZ

Even McCullum who managed to average 27 in Australia is averaging 30 in NZ this year.

Good post. Really sets the cat amongst the pigeons.

If you had tailenders averaging 50 with the bat in Australia some of these responses might have a point. But unlike Indian tests this year, where any part time or Harmer-class spinner can take bags of wickets you actually have to be good to score runs in Australia.

I don't really see how the pitches in the last two summers have really "helped" our strengths tbh, which is fast bowling. The team definitely would have preferred pitches with more pace and bounce in them, as opposed to the roadiest of roads.

they don't, it's just ignorance from overseas fans trying to get one up. It actually genuinely annoys me that we don't try to take advantage of Home conditions like other countries do and prepare pitches that suit us and don't suit the opposition, but if anything we do the opposite. Last summer when India toured we gave them roads to suit their batsmen and negate our own bowling and worst of all a couple of them were genuine turners as well!

IMO we are too arrogant and just assume we will beat anyone regardless of conditions (see 2015 Ashes in England) and we need to adapt better if we are going to stand out as no. 1.

 

[SuperMurali]

How is NZ a good place to bat this year? England and the Convicts were both bowled out pretty cheaply

 

[indiaholic]

I don't really see how the pitches in the last two summers have really "helped" our strengths tbh, which is fast bowling. The team definitely would have preferred pitches with more pace and bounce in them, as opposed to the roadiest of roads.

Your bowlers have the best tool set to bowl on flat pitches. They will be better with more pace and bounce but so will the opposition.

 

[indiaholic]

do people actually think that? Sad state of ignorance

The pitches are just the way they are, and if the players have "evolved"/selected for to suit those conditions then that's that.

Not even remotely similar to deliberately preparing dustbowls because you know the touring side has better fast bowlers/not as good spinners or at playing spin.

Meh as if the pitches were born through a natural process rather than by people.

 

[Spark]

Your bowlers have the best tool set to bowl on flat pitches. They will be better with more pace and bounce but so will the opposition.

Do they, though? You can hardly argue that last summer's MCG and SCG pitches and this summer's Perth pitch really helped us in any significant way.

Certainly we're better equipped to bowl out sides on flat decks than many other teams, but I still think more traditional, faster Australian decks would have been preferred by all.