If England are indeed so poor, how **** does that make Oz then?
England win the Ashes in a fairly one sided series: England on tour beat a Steyn-less Proteas: Australia home are beaten by a Steyn-less Proteas!!
Steyn and Philander in England's case tbf, big difference missing your premier fast bowler vs. both your two premier bowlers.If England are indeed so poor, how **** does that make Oz then?
England win the Ashes in a fairly one sided series: England on tour beat a Steyn-less Proteas: Australia home are beaten by a Steyn-less Proteas!!
I'll give you the fact that S.A (and India) might have the edge over England, but there is no way I can have Australia above England. If we are accepting that England are poorer than S.A - because of the Steyn factor, etc. - then that literally knocks Oz outside of all contention here. We should not even be discussing Australia as they were beaten with a home advantage!!Steyn and Philander in England's case tbf, big difference missing your premier fast bowler vs. both your two premier bowlers.
That said, I'd only have Australia very marginally ahead of England as of this moment, it's not a big gap.
I'm not convinced, both sides would likely win vs. one another at home, both sides seems to play well in SA & Australia the more impressive of the two sides touring NZ. Outside of that they're pretty even for mine.England > Australia, no argument there, although Australia are favourites to win the next Ashes series at home.
I'm not really across what he did the summer, but I think the consensus was that he was likely the best Test bowler in the world at the start of the year.Broad is clearly a better bowler nowadays than Anderson. Really impressed with his bowling. Troubles batsmen even on flatest of pitches with seam and/or swing.
This is funny
Jesus. Had to go back and read my post again and realised what I'd done.Well, happened to me once too. Its gonna feel pretty dumb to GIMH once it dawns on him.
I think that's fair, they're up there with England around 4th place though, but yeah a long way off India and South Africa.Fair to say Australia is no where near the picture?
Changed your thoughts on Pakistan?I think that's fair, they're up there with England around 4th place though, but yeah a long way off India and South Africa.
Not unless you believe that one swallow makes a summer, especially considering they still lost the game against a relatively weak Australian side, and also given it's only weeks since their embarrassing 2-0 annihilation against NZ & not long from their previous lost to the Windies.Changed your thoughts on Pakistan?
Only in Pakistan's case there is a middle ground, since most seem to be currently ranking them about 5th in the world out of the 10 Test teams. I'd say number 5 out of 10 is pretty much middle-ground isn't it?the backlash against pakistan has just been typical of the "you're amazing or terrible, no middle ground" attitude current CW has tbh. team ratings are written like click bait.
It's also important not to realise that the Test wasn't quite as close as it looked. Aus batted ****, threw away a lot of wickets (2nd innings pretty much all declaration wickets) and still won by 40 runs & 5 wickets.Pakistan really impressed me this game. But you don't get any points for moral victories. Remains to be seen whether they can carry on this standard of performance through the rest of the series. It should only get easier for them from here on in. They'll be better acclimatized to the conditions, the Melbourne and Sydney pitches should help Shah a bit more, and they know that Australia are quite beatable. Amir and Riaz have looked good, and the younger batsmen have shown they can score runs here. They need to hang on to their catches, basically.
I think this is fair actually.It's also important not to realise that the Test wasn't quite as close as it looked. Aus batted ****, threw away a lot of wickets (2nd innings pretty much all declaration wickets) and still won by 40 runs & 5 wickets.
Agreed, some good fight by Pakistan but Australia had dropped down a gear or two and were looking to cruise home.It's also important not to realise that the Test wasn't quite as close as it looked. Aus batted ****, threw away a lot of wickets (2nd innings pretty much all declaration wickets) and still won by 40 runs & 5 wickets.
Good to see some fight though