best team in world cricket right now

[honestbharani]

I too like to miss the point of posts completely.

I am sorry.. should we go back and draw up lists of what the opposition could have done that would have made these results different as well? I mean, I am pretty sure I can go back and quote posts from the Ind-SA tour thread when us Indian CW fans where shitting ourselves that we have not made enough runs and that we could easily lose certain games. AFAIC, you put any of these 3 touring teams we have had this year in any of the other set of tracks (that the other two touring sides got) and I dont think the results would have been different. If anything, I think RSA's batting and style of batting might have given us more headaches than Eng and NZ and that is just based on the quality of the batsmen who toured. I dont see why it is disrespectful to England or NZ. Both teams are rebuilding and have got younger players while RSA had a middle order of Amla, AB and Faf. EVen out of form, I would back these guys to pose more danger on the flat tracks we have seen this series.

 

[Slifer]

You could say, commencing 2011, four series, two in each country,

England win: eight (six home, two away)
India win: six (5 home, 1 away)
Draw: 3

Umm no, most recent test series home and away. Don't see why it's so hard to accept.

 

[S.Kennedy]

Umm no, most recent test series home and away. Don't see why it's so hard to accept.

I do not follow?

If we cumulatively take into consideration the last five years and last four series (including this one), England win (by a healthy margin).

 

[honestbharani]

It is possible to imagine taking a team of 4 awesome quicks and hurting the world. Is it even remotely possible to imagine taking 4 spinners on a tour of world beating?

You cant do either, tbh. 4 awesome quicks will break down in certain tracks. Even the Windies side needed Harper time to time.

 

[S.Kennedy]

Didn't that Indian quartet travel, Bedi, Chandrasekhar, etc - or did they usually drop one or two for seamers?

 

[Slifer]

I do not follow?

If we cumulatively take into consideration the last five years and last four series (including this one), England win (by a healthy margin).

The point of this thread is not the best team from 5 years ago, it's the best team atm. I think any reasonable person would understand that to mean the most recent home and away results between two teams. As an example nobody is considering Oz's last tour to india because of the upcoming series in a few months.

Atm India >England. Not just because India did better in the bilateral series between the two sides but because of 'other' results . For goodness sake, England drew against Bangladesh and the WI.

 

[Burgey]

Yes Burgey but that is different from saying " few silly mistakes in the field is why we are losing this badly".

Absolutely.

 

[Burgey]

So the updated rankings come out, and Australia goes to second after losing five tests in a row recently, with England losing 4-0 to India away sliding three places.

It's like the bloke in the office who loses the company money getting the same Christmas bonus as the bloke who made them millions.

 

[honestbharani]

yeah... does the ICC rankings make you lose points for losing series that you had won last time and converse, a la the ATP rankings?

 

[Furball]

I can get on board with Australia being 2nd tbh.

England have won 3 and lost 7 of their last 11.

 

[Bijed]

Got no issue with us sliding down the rankings, but surely SA should be above Aus?

 

[Furball]

Got no issue with us sliding down the rankings, but surely SA should be above Aus?

Why?

It's like saying Arsenal should be ahead of Chelsea in the Premier League.

 

[Zinzan]

I can get on board with Australia being 2nd tbh.

England have won 3 and lost 7 of their last 11.

Yup, no doubt England are out of the conversation for now.

But in spite of the rankings, I think most feel SA > Aust atm.

 

[S.Kennedy]

The point of this thread is not the best team from 5 years ago, it's the best team atm. I think any reasonable person would understand that to mean the most recent home and away results between two teams. As an example nobody is considering Oz's last tour to india because of the upcoming series in a few months.

Atm India >England. Not just because India did better in the bilateral series between the two sides but because of 'other' results . For goodness sake, England drew against Bangladesh and the WI.

The only way to know who is number one is to adopt a larger time frame in order to include victories on tour. It is the only way to do it. It would be equally unfair if England were proclaimed number one for solely nibbling the ball about on their green seamers in the English summer a la 2015 Ashes.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Niiice, shift goal posts when you originally said they were "slow and low, ridiculously more so than normal"... They were not. That is a fact. The pitches did carry and zip through more than enough, otherwise you wont see Varun Aaron bouncing people out. But again, its so obvious that I expect you to miss it. Your adding the relative degree of comparison is after your original post. It may have been less than normal for a regular Australian track but it was still fast and bouncy and true, by any normal standards of cricket wicket judgement.

lmao that was always what the discussion was about. You just completely missed the point and came barging in making a fool out of yourself.

And yes, they were absolutely "slow and low, ridiculously more so than normal". Just because they had more bounce and carry than a Mumbai dustbowl mean's nothing, the whole point of the discussion is how they relate to average Australian pitches.

"by any normal standards of cricket wicket judgement" is completely irrelevant

Basically hb, try to understand what people are talking about before coming in and posting such absolute irrelevant **** next time

Riiiight.. same way how India prepared flat decks and let Australia win all the tosses in 2013 then, huh?

I wouldn't know, but what I said it's also not even debatable. That's exactly what they did, flatten the decks to drag out the Tests and make sure they lasted 5 days. It's not just speculation.

That certain Mitchell Johnson was not in the same form as he was the previous summer. Surely its even dumber that you cant get that fact through to your head, isn't it? I wonder how much you have actually ever had to do in terms of pitch preparation. I have been involved in small capacities with preparing pitches and you cant just change them to bounce more unless you grow more grass on it and even then, the underlying soil will still provide its quality to the wicket, you can just ensure that it goes back to that true nature after a certain amount of time.

Not a single relevant point here

And I am responding to both Spark and a "Certain" aussie-aussie-aussie-oi-oi-oi poster here in saying that is why I mentioned they would have needed to prepare greener tracks if they wanted any more pace and boumce than they already had. And whatever pace and bounce was there worked perfectly for Australia as it accentuated the difference in quality between the two seam attacks and helped the spinner and the batsmen who was used to these conditions more to take advantage of the other team almost being powerless on such tracks. Again, I am not saying they were "prepared" to help Australia. I am just saying the way the tracks turned out helped show up the weaknesses of India and the strengths of Australia even more than faster, bouncier and yes, greener tracks might have.

How can anyone think that? That is just insane

And ROFL that the bloke who says CA prepares tracks to help visitors is talking about being out of touch with "reality"..

It's a simple fact. As I've said twice already, they definitely didn't do it on purpose, but it's worked out that way a few times lately.

Just another coincidence that over the last decade Asian teams always tend to get the Sydney Test and rarely the Perth Test, South Africa always get the Perth Test etc.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Yup, no doubt England are out of the conversation for now.

But in spite of the rankings, I think most feel SA > Aust atm.

As an Australian, even I can agree with this atm

 

[S.Kennedy]

Apparently England's 2-1 victory in South Africa did not happen now, for reasons which are not entirely clear.

 

[centurymaker]

What is with all this continuous debate as to who is the best team right now? Pakistan won the poll and it can't be edited. For all you people who have to state ten times a day, everyday, reasons why India is the best, that explanation itself is the reason they are not the clear best. When Australia and the West Indies were best, did anyone have to talk about it every day, ten times a day? I don't think so. Everyone just knew it.

As it stands. Australia win the most. India is the best home track bully. South Africa is the best away performer.

India is a home track bully but Australia is NOT..
Just a comparison of Australia away vs India away, badly shows up the ignorance and bias..
It's not even about who is the clear best, it's about who is the best 'at the moment' or has been the best in the recent past.. But anyway-

Australia away
0-4 whitewash in India
0-3 whitewash in Srilanka
0-2 whietwash in UAE
2-3 loss in England (winning the two dead rubbers..)
2-0 whitewash of West Indies
2-1 win in South Africa (almost 3 yrs ago, different team)
2-0 whitewash of New Zealand

0-9 whitewash in Asia!
8-13 net result, not bad!

India away (most of which under Dhoni's spineless captaincy)
1-3 loss in England
0-2 loss in Australia
0-1 loss in NZ
0-1 loss in South Africa
2-0 win in West Indies
2-1 win in Sri Lanka

1-7 record outside of Asia in 13 Tests (includes 5 draws!), excluding Windies
Net result 5-8, not bad either!

So in foreign conditions against Top opposition even under Dhoni's captaincy India DID better than what Australia have done in conditions foreign to them, namely Sub-continent & UAE, where they have been white-washed in ALL 3 series in the recent past.. Losing all 9 Tests.
If anything Australia is the 'bigger' home track bully.. (Or familar conditions bully).

 

[Furball]

Apparently England's 2-1 victory in South Africa did not happen now, for reasons which are not entirely clear.

Nor did South Africa disgrace themselves in India.

 

[Furball]

centurymaker really needs to lay off the exclamation points!