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Best Attacks / Batting Line ups in World Cricket presently?
- Thread starter Blocky
- Start date
flibbertyjibber
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Difficult to rank England in anything yet as there are so many team changes from what would previously be ranked on.
morgieb
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Batting:
South Africa - probably weaker without Smith and Kallis, and might fall from #1 soon, but they are the only side with two proven world-class bats.
India - close to becoming the best, though still unconvinced about their openers in unfriendly conditions.
Australia - still a few possible holes, but with Warner and Smith improving there is quite a bit to like about this lineup.
Sri Lanka - very talented middle-order but openers seem a tad iffy to me.
New Zealand - as dire as their openers are, their middle order is actually quite good.
England - way too unproven to call this accurately. Two high-class bats, and some promising ones.
Pakistan - carried by their old guys, little depth.
West Indies - only truly class bat is old.
Bangladesh - actually have a lot of depth in their batting and their best bats do have some potential.
Zimbabwe - just plain poor, except for Taylor.
Bowling:
Australia - have us ahead of South Africa due to having a proper spinner. Both very, very talented attacks though.
South Africa
Pakistan - now it gets trickier, but their spin stocks are second to none and Junaid is quality. Realistically, 3-7 could alternate on any given day.
West Indies - full strength they're actually quite good - two quality spinners, and a few good pace options. Under-rated here.
New Zealand - only because their spinning stocks are dire. Seam stocks are clearly 3rd though IMO.
India - seam bowling is still iffy. Spinners do their job, but aren't effective away from home.
England - good opening pair, but everything else is ridiculously unproven.
Sri Lanka - improving pace stocks, but they're still bad IMO.
Zimbabwe - actually aren't too bad of an attack. Unfortunately they rarely play.
Bangladesh - I like their spinners, but have clearly the worst pace bowling attack.
South Africa - probably weaker without Smith and Kallis, and might fall from #1 soon, but they are the only side with two proven world-class bats.
India - close to becoming the best, though still unconvinced about their openers in unfriendly conditions.
Australia - still a few possible holes, but with Warner and Smith improving there is quite a bit to like about this lineup.
Sri Lanka - very talented middle-order but openers seem a tad iffy to me.
New Zealand - as dire as their openers are, their middle order is actually quite good.
England - way too unproven to call this accurately. Two high-class bats, and some promising ones.
Pakistan - carried by their old guys, little depth.
West Indies - only truly class bat is old.
Bangladesh - actually have a lot of depth in their batting and their best bats do have some potential.
Zimbabwe - just plain poor, except for Taylor.
Bowling:
Australia - have us ahead of South Africa due to having a proper spinner. Both very, very talented attacks though.
South Africa
Pakistan - now it gets trickier, but their spin stocks are second to none and Junaid is quality. Realistically, 3-7 could alternate on any given day.
West Indies - full strength they're actually quite good - two quality spinners, and a few good pace options. Under-rated here.
New Zealand - only because their spinning stocks are dire. Seam stocks are clearly 3rd though IMO.
India - seam bowling is still iffy. Spinners do their job, but aren't effective away from home.
England - good opening pair, but everything else is ridiculously unproven.
Sri Lanka - improving pace stocks, but they're still bad IMO.
Zimbabwe - actually aren't too bad of an attack. Unfortunately they rarely play.
Bangladesh - I like their spinners, but have clearly the worst pace bowling attack.
BeeGee
International Captain
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
| Rank | Batting | Seam | Spin | Ov. Bowling |
| 1 | South Africa | South Africa | Pakistan | Australia |
| 2 | India | Australia | Sri Lanka | South Africa |
| 3 | Australia | New Zealand | West Indies | Pakistan |
| 4 | Sri Lanka | England | India | England |
| 5 | West Indies | Pakistan | Bangladesh | New Zealand |
| 6 | England | West Indies | Australia | West Indies |
| 7 | New Zealand | India | England | India |
| 8 | Pakistan | Zimbabwe | South Africa | Sri Lanka |
| 9 | Bangladesh | Sri Lanka | New Zealand | Zimbabwe |
| 10 | Zimbabwe | Bangladesh | Zimbabwe | Bangladesh |
straw man
Hall of Fame Member
Top three batting teams by average are SL, NZ and Bangladesh. Heh.
kyear2
Cricketer Of The Year
Good list, don't think our batting is that high though.
Will see tomorrow in any event.
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
It's very hard to split 4-8 really, especially since the new England side hasn't even played a single game yet. I think on paper the West Indies batting fares favourably to New Zealand's though -- Chanderpaul is the best batsman on either side and I don't see much difference between Willamson/McCullum and Bravo/Samuels in overall quality. The West Indies advantage lies in the fact that they at least have one decent Test opener.
I suspect England may slot into 4 or 5 very soon but a lineup of Cook, Bell and several question marks is really hard to rate.
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Teams tend to use two spinners in spin-friendly conditions so I basically did the rankings with the best two spinners from each country in mind. That's why Australia are so low; they've got Lyon and nothing else.
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Today I learned I rate the West Indies higher than most in general. Or at least the individual components of their side even if not the side as a whole.
They do under-achieve a bit though. Individually I rate all the components of their side reasonably highly but I just don't rate the team as a whole because they're just as likely to randomly mess up their selection - on perceived merit or otherwise - or fail to put the components together over a series. The pace attacks they've actually put out over the last year or so have been terrible too.
They do under-achieve a bit though. Individually I rate all the components of their side reasonably highly but I just don't rate the team as a whole because they're just as likely to randomly mess up their selection - on perceived merit or otherwise - or fail to put the components together over a series. The pace attacks they've actually put out over the last year or so have been terrible too.
Flem274*
123/5
Their only proven test spinner is Shillingford and the ICC might have just neutered him. He's got a learning curve ahead of him now he's doosra-less.
Ashwin and Ojha are proven wrecking balls in turning conditions. Narine will probably come good but right now the second spot is clearly India's imo.
Like you I rate parts of the side, but they appear to just fall to bits when they've been denied too long (see their recent India and NZ tours, and even day 1 of the current test) and the selectors shoot themselves in the foot.
They will be a much sterner test once Roach and Taylor have some bowling behind them, but there's trouble coming for the batting. Chanderpaul, Gayle and Bravo are class, and Samuels was good before his slump, but three of those batsmen are close to retirement. Several blokes need to give Bravo a hand.
Ashwin and Ojha are proven wrecking balls in turning conditions. Narine will probably come good but right now the second spot is clearly India's imo.
Like you I rate parts of the side, but they appear to just fall to bits when they've been denied too long (see their recent India and NZ tours, and even day 1 of the current test) and the selectors shoot themselves in the foot.
They will be a much sterner test once Roach and Taylor have some bowling behind them, but there's trouble coming for the batting. Chanderpaul, Gayle and Bravo are class, and Samuels was good before his slump, but three of those batsmen are close to retirement. Several blokes need to give Bravo a hand.
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Prince EWS
Global Moderator
He'd be right in contention, yeah.
Maximas
Cricketer Of The Year
Ajmal and Rehman are by a distance the best spin pair in the world, the issue with India vs Sri Lanka is that while India have two very good performers at home (Ashwin/Ohja) but not much away from home at all, while on the other hand Sri Lanka have arguably the world's best spinner home and away but no one anywhere near his class to pair him.