subshakerz
Hall of Fame Member
Even though I don't rate India ahead of SA, I consider India's bowling worldclass. They have proven themselves as a unit in all conditions. It's their batting that has generally let them down.
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Best team since Waugh/ Ponting’s Australia?
- Thread starter Chrish
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Slifer
International Captain
And their fielding. Never underestimate that please....
centurymaker
Cricketer Of The Year
Hmmm thats true! They drop or narrowly miss several opportunities each game. It’s like the bowlers have to get at least 25 wickets per match, if not usually more.
But they did beat Dhoni's India in 2013/14.....
OverratedSanity
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Amazing. I think this comfortably takes the cake as the dumbest post in the thread. That team was full of babies in their first series because all the vets from Dhoni's actual good team had retired. Calling that team "Dhoni's India" is like saying England beat "Ponting's Australia" in 2010-11. ****ing stupid.
Lol. " all the vets from Dhoni's actual good team". You mean all the over the hill duffers that struck around too long and were busy being thrashed 4-0 by England and Australia, losing to England at home, etc. Yeah, if only Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman and Zaheer Khan had been around, Smith's team would never have won that series.
OverratedSanity
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Yes, that's the point? Smith's SA couldn't beat that team of grandpas under Dhoni that got smashed in England and Australia months later. Wonder why.Lol. " all the vets from Dhoni's actual good team". You mean all the over the hill duffers that struck around too long and were busy being thrashed 4-0 by England and Australia, losing to England at home, etc. Yeah, if only Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman and Zaheer Khan had been around, Smith's team would never have won that series.
Spark
Global Moderator
subshakerz
Hall of Fame Member
Around the time when SA faced India in early 2011, India were the no.1 rated team in all formats, Tendulkar was the best batsman in the world, Harbhajan and Zaheer were bowling as well as they ever had. By the end of the year when they played in Australia, it was clear they were a spent force collectively though. A year can be a long time. I think winning the WC in between may have had an effect on the players perhaps because that marked the end of their 2007 - 2011 golden run.
sunilz
International Regular
Winning 2011 WC was the pinnacle achievement for that team. After that many of the players didn't give their 100% . Just after WC , we had a Test series in WI in which all of Gambhir , Sehwag, Tendulkar, Zaheer didn't play.
If that team hadn't won ODI WC , they probably would have competed much better in ENG/AUS. The hunger had died .
Gob
International Coach
Aus from 99 to 07 atleast as good no?
subshakerz
Hall of Fame Member
The point is that Smith's SA didn't face the oldies when they were crap. England and Australia did and reaped the benefits, with England, fresh from losing at home to SA, even winning in India. Dhoni's team of oldies would have lost a series (either home or away) to SA had they played them at the time, just as his uwu "literal babies" team lost anyway in 2013/14.
sunilz
International Regular
So you are saying Smith's SA can beat a team only when they are crap. Then they shouldn't be included in great sides.
honestbharani
Whatever it takes!!!
subshakerz in this thread is a posterboy for silentstriker's old circular reasoning avatar.
ankitj
Hall of Fame Member
That's circular. Looking at results of England and Australia series and declaring they were crap.
ankitj
Hall of Fame Member
I was the first to post it on cw though ?
OverratedSanity
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Well yeah obviously. Point is this Indian teams home record is up there with the greatest teams ever. Miles ahead of the other contenders in this poll.
There should be an automatic no aus/WI assumption in threads like this like we have for Bradman in batsman threads. They're quite obviously the two best ever, not worth discussing.
subshakerz
Hall of Fame Member
I watched all of those series. India played nowhere near as hard as they did in SA. They didnt even compete. India's batting failures were especially hard to account for.
As Sunilz said, I think they lost a gear once the WC was won.
subshakerz
Hall of Fame Member
They beat Strauss' side comfortably in England. The original point is that they had stronger rivals to compete for no.1 than Kohli for the most part, since the 'time at no.1' was being used to justify Kohlis side being better.
SA were a better team at home once Philander came into the side in 2011. He gave them their extra edge. If Philander had been there, SA would likely have beaten both India and Eng at home in 2011 and 2009 IMO.
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