The nail has been hit firmly on the head.
You have to look at what this team is consistently capable of, let's face it the top 3 would eat them alive right now, in fact India just did, but the memories of English fans are always conveniently short, and minnow bashing is often confused with class.
I reckon you're realistically 7th in ODI's right now, possibly worse in T20's.
In Tests England will always compete at home (though they lost their last 2 main summer tours...looks like the ashes are going too), but they're godawful travellers, I mean their last meaningful overseas series victory was SA back in 2004. It's overseas performances and performances against the best sides that players are ultimately judged on, this is where English players consistently fail. Due to this it's difficult to rate their test side, sure they'll most probably beat Pakistan in England, but Pakistan would almost certainly beat England in Pakistan, however who would do better in India or South Africa, or Australia and Sri Lanka?
Basically England are great minnow bashers that give's their players rather over inflated opinions of themselves, but their records against top test sides are mostly abysmal. It's for this reason that they'll tend to stay around the middle of the pack in terms of standard, it's the systematic improvement of teams such as India and South Africa that is making England look worse.
Sorry if it's all a bit garbled, wrote as I thought.
