The Inaugural World Test Championship

[Chewie]

Who's the genius that decided that a #1 side beating a #2 side 5-0 will give the same amount of points as #1 side beating a #8 side 2-0?

India are laughing with 120 points vs WI and will play 2 tests at home vs BD later this year for another 120 points.

So that those number 8 sides get games.

 

[Adders]

Only way Test championship would have any validity would be if it's done through a full rotation of everyone playing each other equally, home and away, with the same number of Tests. Which will simply never happen.

I agree apart from the number of tests per series. I think min of 3 tests per series, but I don't think it matters too much if some more profitable series are 4 or 5 tests.

 

[h_hurricane]

Who's the genius that decided that a #1 side beating a #2 side 5-0 will give the same amount of points as #1 side beating a #8 side 2-0?

India are laughing with 120 points vs WI and will play 2 tests at home vs BD later this year for another 120 points.

India play a 5 test series against Eng in Jan 2021 and a 4 test series in Aus late next year if I am right. Kind of balances it isn't it ?

 

[sunilz]

AUS would also get a chance to laugh with 120 points vs BAN in a 2 test match series next year in June . Hope they don't end up crying after the series . BAN are ranked lower than WI in ICC rankings.

 

[TheJediBrah]

AUS would also get a chance to laugh with 120 points vs BAN in a 2 test match series next year in June .

In Australia? Otherwise it's not the same thing at all

 

[harsh.ag]

Jokes aside, a weighted index based points system makes more sense and it probably will be implemented in the future.

 

[sunilz]

In Australia? Otherwise it's not the same thing at all

IND vs WI in WI is more difficult than AUS vs BAN in BAN ( Both are 2 test match series )

 

[TheJediBrah]

IND vs WI in WI is more difficult than AUS vs BAN in BAN ( Both are 2 test match series )

yeah, no

Aus will have a much harder time in Bangladesh, especially if they doctor the pitches.

 

[sunilz]

yeah, no

Aus will have a much harder time in Bangladesh, especially if they doctor the pitches.

And WI pitches were not doctored .
Pitches favouring fast bowling are sporting and those favouring spin bowling are doctored .

Lowest batting avg for WI in a series
14.95 vs Ind 2019 (H)
15.77 vs SL 2005 (A)
15.80 vs Aus 2015 (H)
16.10 vs Eng 1928 (A)
16.72 vs Ban 2018/19 (A)

 

[harsh.ag]

yeah, no

Aus will have a much harder time in Bangladesh, especially if they doctor the pitches.

Good to see you admit India are a much more well rounded side for all conditions than Australia.

 

[TheJediBrah]

And WI pitches were not doctored .
Pitches favouring fast bowling are sporting and those favouring spin bowling are doctored .

Lowest batting avg for WI in a series
14.95 vs Ind 2019 (H)
15.77 vs SL 2005 (A)
15.80 vs Aus 2015 (H)
16.10 vs Eng 1928 (A)
16.72 vs Ban 2018/19 (A)

I don't think you know what doctored means

Good to see you admit India are a much more well rounded side for all conditions than Australia.

Yes I was going to say exactly that. Even not taking into account that India are a better team than Australia, they are still not going to be challenged in WI anywhere near as much as Aus will/have been in Bangladesh (again, heavily dependant on the pitches served up though)

 

[h_hurricane]

On a different note, do we think doctoring pitches to be spin friendly is unfair to the opposition any more than preparing pace friendly tracks ? Just curious to know different perspectives on this.

 

[TheJediBrah]

On a different note, do we think doctoring pitches to be spin friendly is unfair to the opposition any more than preparing pace friendly tracks ? Just curious to know different perspectives on this.

equally unfair, but one is hypothetical and one happens quite often. Doctoring wickets to be pace friendly never really happens. Probably because it's a lot easier to doctor a wicket to be exceptionally spin friendly than it is to doctor a wicket to be pace friendly.

 

[Starfighter]

You can doctor a wicket to be seam friendly by leaving a lot of grass on it, but it's hard to 'doctor' a wicket to make it excessively fast or anything. The closest would be inconsistent bounce.

You should also remember that cricket is generally played on a grassy field, unless you have outfields like Pakistan in their earlier years. Cricket was originally played on 'natural' pitches, then pitches have become progressively more and more altered. The less grass you have on a pitch, the further you are altering it from its natural state, and the more effort you have to put in to do so (cutting the grass every day, excessive rolling, lack of watering etc).

 

[cnerd123]

The only thing missing from this WTC is a version of NRR that works for Tests

In the ODI WC you get just as many points for beating Ireland as you do for beating India in the group stage. The Test Championship has to obviously do the same thing.

 

[vcs]

Faf literally requests for green, bouncy pitches every time an Asian team tours over there (good to see it bit him on the backside against SL this year).

"Doctored" pitches = home advantage, plain and simple

Adapt and learn to play spin, basically. It may even work out in your favour (see Pune 2017). How boring it would be if all pitches behaved the same.

 

[Starfighter]

Don't the Saffers have a soon forthcoming away series against India? Gonna have a torrid time as they've got to be the worst players of spin out of the current top seven.

 

[h_hurricane]

It will be very interesting to see how the pitches will be in the Ind-SA series. If it is anywhere close to how it was 4 years back, they are going to get obliterated for sure.

 

[OverratedSanity]

It was pretty funny how there was so much outrage over the pitches in the 2015 series (some of it justified, a lot of it not) which overshadowed how bad SA clearly had become at playing spin. A lot of people only realized how bad they were once they went to England and spudded it up against Moeen.

Wouldnt completely write them off though. What they need is one innings where Rabada goes crazy like Steyn used to whenever he toured Asia.

 

[TheJediBrah]

You can doctor a wicket to be seam friendly by leaving a lot of grass on it, but it's hard to 'doctor' a wicket to make it excessively fast or anything. The closest would be inconsistent bounce.

Yeah when I heard "pace friendly" I assumed we were talking about doctoring fast, hard and bouncy wickets, specifically to give an advantage against Asian teams (ie. the opposite of Sl, Bangladesh doctoring dustbowls when Aus, SA, Eng tour)

If we're talking about greentops that's a whole different kettle of fish. For example Australia preparing greentops against SL or Bangladesh will help SL and Bangladesh a lot more than Australia, as they just bring lesser fast bowlers into the game. If that's what you mean by "pace friendly" I guess it would be pretty easy to doctor them (but I wouldn't really call that "pace friendly")

specifically from an Aus point of view, if we were wanting to doctor pitches we should be trying to make everything like the Gabba and the WACA used to be, and get away from the slow **** drop ins that have taken over the country.