Best Test Team In The World?

[Sir Alex]

You can only beat what is put in front of you

Also worth noting that in the timespan of our entire run, India have 'only' beaten Nz and Bangas...

Sri Lanka and Australia too, although they were at home.

In the last 4 years, England played Ind, SL, Aus, and SA both home and away. Without a single series win, except of course the Ashes win at home. India has wins over SL(home), England (home and away), & Aus (home) at the least.

 

[GIMH]

Our unbeaten run is from May 09 onwards, that's what I meant by 'timespan'

The last four or five years has nothing to do with who is the best team at the minute

 

[vic_orthdox]

Sri Lanka and Australia too, although they were at home.

In the last 4 years, England played Ind, SL, Aus, and SA both home and away. Without a single series win, except of course the Ashes win at home. India has wins over SL(home), England (home and away), & Aus (home) at the least.

Wasn't India vs Australia well before England beat the West Indies, in England, to begin their run?

 

[Sir Alex]

Our unbeaten run is from May 09 onwards, that's what I meant by 'timespan'

The last four or five years has nothing to do with who is the best team at the minute

That is precisely why I ask whom all have England beat recently (ie in last few months) to suddenly think they are at the top of their game? I can see Bangladesh home and away nd Pakistan, none of whom are in the top league.

Wasn't India vs Australia well before England beat the West Indies, in England, to begin their run?

Yep. My mistake.

 

[GIMH]

West Indies was before Australia & South Africa, you either include it or you don't

As I said yesterday,I'm not saying we deserve to be number one at this point, but that the performances in recent times suggest to me we'd give anyone a game at home. I don't think we would win in India just yet although a draw wouldn't be out of the question, and I think we've a chance of retaining the Ashes.

As I also said, earlier, you can only beat what's put in front of you and we are doing that at the minute. We can't do any more than that.

 

[Sir Alex]

Fair enough.

 

[pasag]

England

 

[GIMH]

Laugh while you can ****, we'll have you off in the rankings soon

 

[pasag]

 

[Johnners]

Fair call, just find it hard to report such posts because in isolation they often look like nothing

We tend not to look at posts in isolation for that very reason

Weird situation to be in atm, entire time I've been watching cricket there's definitely been at least 1 "dominant" team. Still think SA are the best so long as Steyn/Morkel are fit, but don't see any one team in particular establishing themselves as a dominant force in the next 12-24 months barring some major improvements by younger players.

 

[Jono]

^ Yeah, and it's a good thing for test cricket too. Even if we have ****ty arguments over who is better :P

 

[subshakerz]

I think India was clearly no.1 when we beat Sri Lanka easily at home and South Africa only managed a draw against England. South Africa narrowed the game by drawing a series in India but not enough IMO to become no.1. However given our peformance in the current series I have to admit that whatever happens in this test, we have lost our no.1 status. So it's got be SA right now but not by much.

Am I the only one who is not impressed by India winning at home? India are easily the hardest to beat in the own conditions, but they've been that way since the 90s (in fact, they didn't lose a single series at home in the 90s). But as far as it making them no.1, it proves little. Just look at the current series in SL to see how well they fair abroad. They have yet to draw much less win a series in SA, Australia, and SL, and until they do, they can't claim to be no.1.

To be number one, you need to have a strong record home AND away. Only SA meet that criteria. Their home record, barring that defeat by the Aussies, has been impressive, and they easily have the best away record.

 

[Jono]

They have yet to draw much less win a series in Australia

 

[subshakerz]

Ah yes, if you go back far enough. Lets see if Dhoni's team can do that.

 

[Ikki]

AWsubshakerz. Only SA with a good enough record to stand out from the rest of the pack. India is back along with the likes of Aus, SL and Eng.

 

[Jono]

Ah yes, if you go back far enough. Lets see if Dhoni's team can do that.

Would help if Australia bring back Brad Williams

 

[Sir Alex]

Am I the only one who is not impressed by India winning at home? India are easily the hardest to beat in the own conditions, but they've been that way since the 90s (in fact, they didn't lose a single series at home in the 90s). But as far as it making them no.1, it proves little. Just look at the current series in SL to see how well they fair abroad. They have yet to draw much less win a series in SA, Australia, and SL, and until they do, they can't claim to be no.1.

To be number one, you need to have a strong record home AND away. Only SA meet that criteria. Their home record, barring that defeat by the Aussies, has been impressive, and they easily have the best away record.

We have drawn series in Australia. SA haven't won in India as well (if you are taking recent times, otherwise we have beat SL in SL as well)

 

[Avada Kedavra]

Am I the only one who is not impressed by India winning at home? India are easily the hardest to beat in the own conditions, but they've been that way since the 90s (in fact, they didn't lose a single series at home in the 90s). But as far as it making them no.1, it proves little. Just look at the current series in SL to see how well they fair abroad. They have yet to draw much less win a series in SA, Australia, and SL, and until they do, they can't claim to be no.1.

To be number one, you need to have a strong record home AND away. Only SA meet that criteria. Their home record, barring that defeat by the Aussies, has been impressive, and they easily have the best away record.

India have won their last series in England,New Zealand,West Indies (not counting Bang).They lost 1-2 to SA,SL and Aus (none of them dead rubbers) - that's hardly what you'd call "winning at home only".

If you have to win home and away against everyone,then no team is number 1 yet because India haven't been beaten at home.This might sound ridiculous but I think a home series for India is an away series for the visiting side

 

[subshakerz]

India have won their last series in England,New Zealand,West Indies (not counting Bang).They lost 1-2 to SA,SL and Aus (none of them dead rubbers) - that's hardly what you'd call "winning at home only".

If you have to win home and away against everyone,then no team is number 1 yet because India haven't been beaten at home.This might sound ridiculous but I think a home series for India is an away series for the visiting side

Beating England in England was a fine achievement, and even now I would rate India better than England, but beating a Bond-less NZ and WI away aren't great achievements. And remember, rating the current teams means rating them under the current captains, and under Dhoni India have yet to really prove themselves abroad except for NZ. A loss in SL will hurt them. No doubt India are a better away team than in the 90s, but not quite at SA's level.

Under Smith, SA have beaten Eng, WI, Australia, and Pakistan away, and drawn two series in India, perhaps the hardest place to tour. The last time Smith lost an away series was way back in 2005 against McWarne's Australia. It would be interesting to see how his side fairs in SL, but I think they would do better than India currently are.The point is that since his team has formed a settled nucleus of class players around 2007 (Steyn, Morkel, DeVilliers, Amla, Kallis, Boucher, Prince), and their form has peaked around the same period, his team has clearly been ahead of others.

 

[vcs]

SA are no doubt better away than India, though their reliance on Steyn is a bit worrying. But there's not much India can do about whether Bond was playing or not, fact is, we played well and deserved to win that series comfortably. England away was also a very good win for India. It's also heartening that we managed to fight back and square both our home series against SA despite getting thrashed by an innings to go behind. There's not much in it at all, SA probably just shade it because they don't rely much on conditions to get results as BoyBrumby pointed out.