Think Australia, Windies and SA are a solid top 3. Australia has a bit of a gap due to Bradman, Gilly and Warne.
Windies and SA imo are closer than people may think, Windies has the better batting no doubt but (sacrilegious call here) SA has the bowling edge imo, due to comparable pacers and far superior spinners. Tayfield is clearly ahead of Gibbs if both are included. Faulkner is also better (assuming he’s in too) as a spinner than Sobers (we recently learned most of his best bowling was as a pacer). Both teams can have AB and Walcott as keepers too. Fascinating matchup imo.
England has batting comparable with these others but sadly their bowling attack just falls quite short and they (despite having superior batsmen) would be competing with Pak and India for 4th.
SL and New Zealand also an interesting matchup, basically pace vs spin on bowlers - SL has the better batters overall but that gap has shrunk a bit recently with Williamson and Taylor.
Interesting take. I actually think that Windies and Aussies are actually closer than one might think. Australia have the advantage in opening, Gilchrist and spinners in general (not just Warne but O'Reilly, Grimmett, Lyon , Trumble and Benaud as well if required); while, hear me out; windies have a stronger middle order; in the likes of Richards, Lara, Headley, Sobers and Walcott (if he keeps). After Bradman, the first four of them are in consideration in the Greatest batsmen 2nd spot. Pace I also think goes to WI, with Marshall, Ambrose and Holding/Garner/Walsh barely edging out Lillee, Miller, McGrath and/or Lindwall. But yeah, ultimately I think Bradman factor dictates.
On the 3rd team position, I actually do think it's quite close. I think SA are the biggest dark horses, due to having large no of Allrounders and players who doesn't have long test careers (Richards, Procter, Pollock, Rice (if he counts)); but I do think England have better batsman (just slightly) in Hobbs, Hutton, Sutcliffe, Hammond, Barrington, Root, Compton; and equal bowlers in Sydney Barnes, Trueman, Anderson, Broad, Larwood, Bedser, Willis, Botham, Laker, Rhodes, Verity, Underwood to Steyn, Donald, Procter, Pollock, Rice, Van der Bijl, Rabada, Tayfield, Faulkner. Overall, it's really close.
Again, India and Pakistan is very close. It could either way; India has better batsmen and spinners while Pakistan has far superior Pacers.
Also, SL and NZ is especially tricky as Sri Lanka has some ATGs (Murali, Sanga, Jayawardene) and some more greats (Vaas, Aurobindo De Silva, Herath, Jayasuriya); but the team isn't much balanced and rest of the players are quite mediocre given the stage. On the other hand, New Zealand has solid batting (Crowe, Williamson, Turner, Sutcliffe, Ross Taylor, McCullum) a solid pace battery (Hadlee, Bond, Boult, Southee, Wegner), and a good spinner (Vettori). But I think I gave the nod to them for having a bunch of great Allrounders in John Richard Reid, Richard Hadlee, Daniel Vettori and Chris Cairns.