• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

The Best of The Rest - NZ, WI, Pak, Bang in tests

Who is the best test team of these teams?

  • Total voters
    51
Jezroy

Jezroy

State Captain
Due to the thread about the best team in the world being derailed, I thought I would start a poll about who is the best among what I (and the ICC Rankings) consider to be the best test team outside AUS, RSA, ENG, IND, and SL. Over the last 12 months or so I believe that those 5 have been the best teams going round.

So who is next best?

Is it NZ who you can best describe as steady? The top order leaving a lot to be desired (apart from one or two notable exceptions)? The bowling being described as honest without being penetrative?

Is it Pakistan who have struggled to play a lot of tests due to the nature of their problems at home? The team whose infighting has undermined their talent? The team who seem to possess a very good fast bowling unit, but struggle on the batting front?

Is it WI who still seem to be able to give teams a bit of a fright without taking it a step further? Who probably have an all round better batting unit than the two teams above, yet struggle for consistency? And whose bowling struggles through injury to stay in one piece, yet shows some signs of inconsistent promise?

Or maybe (just maybe) you think it is Bangladesh? A team who rely very heavily on one Tamim Iqbal (though hopefully that is changing a bit now) in the batting and one Shakib Al Hasan in the bowling? A team whose inconsistency tends to hide their progress, and one that I believe at home, could knock anyone of the above 3 over if the stars are aligned correctly.

Here is your chance to disuss THIS topic and have THIS argument.
 
Last edited:
Somerset

Somerset

Cricketer Of The Year
I think West Indies is firmly eighth and Bangladesh easily ninth. The Pakistan vs New Zealand "home" series in December, which was drawn 1-1, was a pretty good indication IMO of the strength of the two sides in conditions that were not overly demanding and the pitches (besides the final three or so days at Napier) offered assistance for the seamers. In sub-continental conditions I'd back Pakistan to come out on top against the Black Caps. However, given it seems unlikely that Pakistan will be playing proper home tests for some time, I think theres very little to split New Zealand and Pakistan for that sixth spot - I'd probably give it to Pakistan for the time being though, as we've got a poor test record away from home over the last 5-6 years, whereas at least the Pakistanis are remaining competitive without use of their home country.
 
Flem274*

Flem274*

123/5
Somerset said:
I think West Indies is firmly eighth and Bangladesh easily ninth. The Pakistan vs New Zealand "home" series in December, which was drawn 1-1, was a pretty good indication IMO of the strength of the two sides in conditions that were not overly demanding and the pitches (besides the final three or so days at Napier) offered assistance for the seamers. In sub-continental conditions I'd back Pakistan to come out on top against the Black Caps. However, given it seems unlikely that Pakistan will be playing proper home tests for some time, I think theres very little to split New Zealand and Pakistan for that sixth spot - I'd probably give it to Pakistan for the time being though, as we've got a poor test record away from home over the last 5-6 years, whereas at least the Pakistanis are remaining competitive without use of their home country.
Click to expand...
Agreed. It's bloody close, and Pakistan are only saved by their bowling. Our batting courtesy of Taylor and Vettori is better now MoYo and Younis Khan are getting banned all the time. When Ryder returns that gap will stretch further.

But Asif is a long, long way ahead of any bowler we have, and Aamer is quite the talent. We may or may not catch up, depending if some of McKay, Southee, Arnel and the young bowlers in domestic cricket make something of themselves.
 
Jezroy

Jezroy

State Captain
Flem274* said:
Agreed. It's bloody close, and Pakistan are only saved by their bowling. Our batting courtesy of Taylor and Vettori is better now MoYo and Younis Khan are getting banned all the time. When Ryder returns that gap will stretch further.

But Asif is a long, long way ahead of any bowler we have, and Aamer is quite the talent. We may or may not catch up, depending if some of McKay, Southee, Arnel and the young bowlers in domestic cricket make something of themselves.
Click to expand...
Also, in Roach West Indies do have a very good fast bowler in the making. If they could sort out another bowler or two staying fit, they would certainly have a better bolwing attack than NZ. But as for raw talent, Pakistan take it there.

I think the sad point in this discussion is that Bangladesh are never mentioned when it comes to fast bowling (and rightly so), but in Sahfiul, Rubel, Mashrafe, and Shahadat you could have quite a handy bowling line up if they weren't so completely hot and cold. Sort of like their batting though I guess.

I think around McKay, an improving Southee (hopefully), and then an Arnel or Tuffey or Martin or Mills NZ could have quite a handy seam attack as well. Just when it looks like Arnel/Martin/Tuffey it all looks very same same to me.
 
Flem274*

Flem274*

123/5
I think Arnel is the best of the three, but Martin will get picked. And take the new ball. Ahead of Southee and McKay, who are worse at the third seamer role than Martin.

EDIT: Though if Tuffey ever got back to where he was, I'd select him in a heartbeat. **** he was good.
 
Jezroy

Jezroy

State Captain
Flem274* said:
I think Arnel is the best of the three, but Martin will get picked. And take the new ball. Ahead of Southee and McKay, who are worse at the third seamer role than Martin.

EDIT: Though if Tuffey ever got back to where he was, I'd select him in a heartbeat. **** he was good.
Click to expand...
I thought he looked quite good in the Wellington test against Pakistan TBF. But when you put him on anywhere like a good batting track with the likes of Arnel and Martin, it just makes him look non threatening.

And yes he was good when he was doing all those first over dismissals. And Bond was playing around then as well. Ah... memories.
 
Hurricane

Hurricane

Hall of Fame Member
When NZ has played Pak and WI they have drawn.

Against Australia - at least WI managed a draw. Pak and NZ lost every game.

Not saying that means WI are better - but I am not sure they deserve to be ranked 8th. I think I would say WI = Pak = NZ

If Pak got back all their banned batsman then I would say they would be the best.
 
Jezroy

Jezroy

State Captain
Good example of why that means that WI have the best batting line up for tests out of WI-PAK-NZ-BANG - they got a draw.
 
WindieWeathers

WindieWeathers

International Regular
As far as i'm concerned the question about who has the best batting order isn't even a debate, it's blatantly obvious that it's WI, then we come to the bowling, Taylor, Roach, Bravo, Benn and one extra (maybe Andre Russell the way he's going) doesn't look too bad to me, i'd also say in Benn we have the most dangerous spinner of all the teams right now too.
 
Jezroy

Jezroy

State Captain
WindieWeathers said:
As far as i'm concerned the question about who has the best batting order isn't even a debate, it's blatantly obvious that it's WI, then we come to the bowling, Taylor, Roach, Bravo, Benn and one extra (maybe Andre Russell the way he's going) doesn't look too bad to me, i'd also say in Benn we have the most dangerous spinner of all the teams right now too.
Click to expand...
I agree with a lot of what you have said - so why (apart from the fact they can't hold their bowlers together - and don't forget Fidel) can they not translate that to consistency and results?

The batting line up is dangerous, but HORRIBLY inconsistent.

And in tests I would say that Shakib is the best spinner in the 4 teams in this poll. Than probably Kaneria on his day.
 
WindieWeathers

WindieWeathers

International Regular
Jezroy said:
I agree with a lot of what you have said - so why (apart from the fact they can't hold their bowlers together - and don't forget Fidel) can they not translate that to consistency and results?

The batting line up is dangerous, but HORRIBLY inconsistent.

And in tests I would say that Shakib is the best spinner in the 4 teams in this poll. Than probably Kaneria on his day.
Click to expand...
It's been hard getting our top batting order on the pitch to be honest, Barath missed the whole of the SA series and half of the Aus one and Sarwan only played one test against Aus and also missed the SA games, those two are very important to us, they're fit again now though, plus we've got Marlon Samuels returning for us which should create a lot of competition in the middle order, along with the ever improving Darren Bravo, so the competition is hotting up with the batters, i pray we have our full team when we go to Sri-lanka in November because i honestly think we can put up a fair fight out there.
 
Athlai

Athlai

Not Terrible
The thing about Benn IMO is that he can take a bagful on any given day but those days are so few and far between, and when he isn't running through the otherside he is barely making an impact at all. Gayle outbowls him at times and seems to bowl to a plan better than him. Kaneria is similar but far far far more reliable on any given day.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Top