How is smith in decline? He's had one bad series in india, before that he averaged 70 odd over a 10 match stretch with 3 hundreds. If he fails in england and the WTC I have no issues saying he's declining, but right now it's a pretty stupid call IMO.
Bumrah is not coming back, on a consistent test player basis i.e., unless he modifies his action and in which case he will most likely lose his fizz. Even if he is fit I believe he will be used sparingly in tests and primarily be selected abroad.
Numbers aside, he is grinding out, rather than dominating. He is scoring at much lower rate than before.
soz Aussie fans. Your team's run ends now.
Mate did you watch the Aussie home summer? He dominated from ball one in both of his 100's that season. Anyone who watched those knocks knew he was in ominous touch from ball one. Same thing for the BBL afterwards and the whiteball stuff vs england before that.
Fair enough. Speaking of batting, why does Labuschagne average 46 in FC? That’s like 10 point difference compared to his test average.
He averaged 30 odd before his test debut haha. If you haven't already i'de look into his rise from barely making the shield team to best test batter in the world, cricket monthly did a wonderful piece on it a while back. TLDR is that he got a test debut, averaged 30 for a few games, got picked in county due to that, made some technical changes while at glamorgan (county team) and averaged 70 odd with 4 or 5 hundreds in that county stint and hasn't looked back since. It's especially interesting because he came into test cricket after the pace playing pandemic started around 2018 and has dominated in that time.
Even without his test career it's risen from 30 odd to low 40's, and he's not had a bad shield season and consistently performed in county in that time. He's just become a much better player allround.
Not if India declines too much . I mean say if we lose 2-0 in SA in 2023 series , then we make ourselves in eligible for no.1 ranking
But are IND the best if we lose 2-0 to SA ?
But ENG have won/won and Aus have Won/Lost against SA . Performance against only 1 team can’t be criteria for no.1
Ehh, hundreds aren't everything, this is a hard era for batting in general and marnus has played in some brutal batting series in that time away (2019 ashes, this border gavaskar, arguably 2023 in SL). If you cut out the first few matches of his career when he was still pre-peak he's made 1 hundred in 13 tests AWAY and averaged 43.5-44 with a highscore of 104. It wouldn't hurt if he kicked on a bit and converted his starts, but i'de argue that given the hit and miss nature of some of our other players away in that time (Uzzie) and the fact that we've functionally had 0 or 1 openers in that time having somoene in the top order consistently get starts and soak up balls while kicking on to 40-80 a good chunk of the time is massive.
Exactly right.
This is all true but it's the argument in defence of a solid journeyman Test batsman averaging in the mid-40s. Not a guy averaging 55-60 and batting 3 for Australia. Starts are all well and good but that's not his job; he needs to be building big scores and converting these starts away from home; he shouldn't be making a platform, he should be capitalising on it. It's what separates the likes of Smith from him regardless of career average.