England in Sri Lanka March-April 2011/12

[Sedition]

Aalay's rankings:

1.
2. Australia/South Africa/England/Pakistan
3.
4.
5.
6. Whoever else

 

[barmyarmy]

umm NO.

It's ok; he was joking. Aussies used to be serious about this kind of thing but then they lost three Ashes series.

 

[Aalay]

You came really close to my ranking but quite there yet.

You forgot to put India in there as we have pretty solid record at home so far plus a decent away record in last few years (Not including England and Australia series)

I will update it for you.

Aalay's rankings:

1.
2. South Africa/England/Australia/India
3. Pakistan
4.
5.
6.
7. Whoever else

 

[barmyarmy]

This is the same Indian side that was whitewashed by England and Australia right?

 

[Aalay]

This is the same Indian side that was whitewashed by England and Australia right?

Unfortunately Dravid is not there.

 

[Sedition]

India are 5th at best really, with some ground to make up on 4th. It's all pretty close between the obvious top 4 teams, but looking ahead, who has the depth to maintain the strongest team?

Controversy seems to follow Pakistan around and their fast bowling stocks aren't what they used to be.

South Africa hasn't rotated their side much over the last few years and they might not need to for another couple, but soon they'll find themselves in a similar situation to Australia where a lot of experienced guys retire or lose touch like India.

England are at least rotating their bowlers/all-rounders, but other than Cook, the batting line-up will be dad's army in 3 years. Butler was the most promising young batsman, but he looks like he's gonna need more time.

Then you look at Australia, who's debutants take 5'fers and score hundreds and you just think "kerpluck me, will it ever end?" and the answer is no, no it won't.

 

[barmyarmy]

Do you know what I found our recently? KP's middle name is Peter making him Kevin Peter Pietersen or KPP. Slight lack of imagination shown by his parents I reckon.

 

[Sedition]

At least they got the spelling right on that one.

 

[ste_mc_efc]

A loss is a loss. You don't look at the margin in it. Even if you loose by 1 run it will be still declared as a loss.

I am all aware of how bad India played in England and that was the reason they got whitewashed but then again, you have to accept that even England is not the best by how they struggled against spin in UAE and Sri Lanka.

So as we have discussed this many times that there is not a single team right now that deserves number 1 spot because none of the teams have shown the sign of domination that we saw in old WI and Australian team.

I don't think you understand the concept of a rankings system.

 

[puddleduck]

I think that unless you win the EPL by 10 points, you shouldn't get the title as you haven't been dominant enough.

Or something else retarded...

 

[barmyarmy]

Looking like Utd just might win it by 10...

 

[puddleduck]

Then they can be classed as number 1 in England, if not, clearly they haven't done enough. In fact I'd suggest that unless they do win it by 10 points, the league is shared by everyone. It's how Stalin saw Cricket, and I for one welcome my new communist overlords.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

Does anyone else find it uncomfortable the way everyone is now saying "England have found a way of winning in the subcontinent and learnt from their past mistakes, having shown an ability to adapt to the conditions etc etc"?

a bit, I don't remember india winning a test in south africa being heralded as india learning to win on grassy pitches, and rightly so, as it wasn't.

 

[ste_mc_efc]

I think that unless you win the EPL by 10 points, you shouldn't get the title as you haven't been dominant enough.

Or something else retarded...

I actually considered writing essentially this.

Although I was going to say united haven't played particularly well but have scraped more points than anyone else. do they not deserve to be considered the best team in the country because of this? Do they not deserve the trophy?

But then I realised I was loathe to bring up football in a cricket conversation so left it out.

----------

a bit, I don't remember india winning a test in south africa being heralded as india learning to win on grassy pitches, and rightly so, as it wasn't.

What a lot of people think though is that the england batsmen can actually play spin. They had the technique to bat well in the conditions, but didn't.

The consensus seems to be that it is not a technical deficiency but a mental one, be that fear of spin, lack of belief or simply a poor approach. But now they have batted well in two innings. Now they have won whatever the mental problem was should have been solved by this.

Whereas for India the problems were/are a little different. Perhaps in the long run people will look back and say this test showed nothing, but as it stands now people think it has demonstrated something and is a positive sign looking forwards.

Although I do agree that one win in one match proves nothing and there has been an overreaction you could also argue that the poor performances were also overblown. If england didn't inexplicably collapse chasing the 145 to win, the series in pakistan is 2-1. and things already look a lot better. it's 2-3 for the winter and simply the variance in sport of some teams/players not performing. It's always difficult to extrapolate from such small sample sizes as involved in test cricket

 

[puddleduck]

I've maintained my belief that these English players can play spin. I also agree with you that despite losing 4 tests in a row it hasn't been a deflating winter. They've been in the game for a lot of the matches, and I still stick to my initial assertion that a draw in Pakistan, followed by wins in Sri Lanka and India would be a fantastic return if England also win the home series against South Africa. Obviously, they lost in Pakistan and drew in Sri Lanka, but if they do win in India (which I'm confident they can do) it's been a pretty decent return from sub-continental touring.

As it stands, this is now going to be a big summer, as England must beat South Africa at home to show that they're not going to India looking to prove they're the number 2 test side in world cricket.