Oh yeah, Bhuvi was great in South Africa in 2018. One of the standout bowlers.
I think the main thing that separates those two teams from the chasing pack is that they didn't have to "show great fight" and come back from behind to close out otherwise tightly contested series that could have gone either way at a few critical moments.
The Indian team management as per Shastri took a (stupid) call that he is a LO specialist bowler. It was not injury or bad luck that he did not make it tbh.
even with every Indian player at absolute peak they're still not close to those sides. This "debate" is cringey af
They are about even. 2021 side has the fortune of Shardul Thakur's mystery pies, but they also faced a much weaker Curran-less side.
Ashwin and Jadeja maybe, but not the pacers.
His body wasn't built for bowling at 135-140k. And Kohli still bowled him as if he was bowling 125-130k's.
This is true, but some of Kohli's teams results were against some pretty weak sides that Smith's SA would have annihilated if they had the chance
That's a very big IF. South African teams aren't really known for annihilating opponents tbf.
Depends on which slice of years you take of course, but yes SA were better mainly because they kept it up for longer. I dont think series where the core of players is on their way out is representative of what we're actually talking about though.
It is not fault of Virat that Australian players are cheater so they banned for a year. Virat teams only can Play whoever appositon team selected .This is most rubbish thing I have ever heard continuously .
Yeah, but tbf, they peaked literally months before that, had the exact same cast and were expected to compete strongly. In hindsight, they just disintegrated after the WC.
India have arguably got batsmen sitting on the bench who would contribute more than Pujara and Rahane so you could certainly make the case they would be a stronger side by dropping those two.
Did Australia ever have so many udnerperforming batsmen together in the team? I'm guessing no. They had the occasional Blewett I suppose. But Kohli-Rahane-Pujara are the supposedly undroppable core of the batting lineup. And they all suck.
I mean if you look at the Australian side at what I guess most people would consider at its absolute peak, it was this:
www.espncricinfo.com
Yeah ATVG is about where I'd put them. They'd trouble everyone, but ultimately I feel they're still a bit too, well, beatable, and obviously haven't done it for anyone near as long to be classed in the true top tier.
01/02 had both Waugh brothers look clearly past it, but one was dropped soon enough and the other had a recovery (admittedly against awful attacks) before retiring.