Say Hello to the No.1 Test team in the World

[drainpipe32]

If RDF is saying Australia didn't deserve to be No. 1 when Warne, McGrath and co were around, then.........

And India have always hated the system. They dissed it when Tendulkar was out of the top 20 in the All Time best batsman, and now they're claiming its validity.....

 

[rahuldravidfan]

If RDF is saying Australia didn't deserve to be No. 1 when Warne, McGrath and co were around, then.........

And India have always hated the system. They dissed it when Tendulkar was out of the top 20 in the All Time best batsman, and now they're claiming its validity.....

Putting words in my mouth is a bad idea coz I'm just gonna spit it out . Australia have deserved to be No.1 in the past, just like India deserves to be No.1 today

As for the "hate", India did the same thing that the Aussies are doing now .

 

[Howsie]

Putting words in my mouth is a bad idea coz I'm just gonna spit it out . Australia have deserved to be No.1 in the past, just like India deserves to be No.1 today

As for the "hate", India did the same thing that the Aussies are doing now .

Quotes?

Anyway Australia deserved to be number one because they were easily the best team in world cricket, India at the moment is nowhere near that level.

 

[SaiSrini]

Quotes?

Anyway Australia deserved to be number one because they were easily the best team in world cricket, India at the moment is nowhere near that level.

Cant agree with that. We are not Number one, but we are close to that. If we can improve our inconsistency (we are already doing work on that), we can be called Number one. The 'ruthlessness' has to get into the minds of the players. When we do well, we got to maintain that streak. We are starting to accumulate victories over sides, but we got to look like we can win every game that we play. I think we can get there when MSD is still captain.

 

[braguvaran]

The whole thread might just become pointless if the Mumbai test ends in a draw or a Lankan win.

Which is what is obviously gonna happen now. I atleast hope that RDF will stop his over the top sensationalism then :laugh

 

[Howsie]

Cant agree with that. We are not Number one, but we are close to that. If we can improve our inconsistency (we are already doing work on that), we can be called Number one. The 'ruthlessness' has to get into the minds of the players. When we do well, we got to maintain that streak. We are starting to accumulate victories over sides, but we got to look like we can win every game that we play. I think we can get there when MSD is still captain.

So how can you not agree with what I said? India isn't the clear number one test team like Australia was between 1995 and 2006, can you argue right now that South Africa isn't the number one team, or Australia or even Sri Lanka and England?

 

[drainpipe32]

Australia is definitely still the team to beat in international cricket. The Saffers can't claim dominance because they haven't beaten us home and away. India are likewise.

Big summer coming up in 2011/12, South Africa away and then India in Australia.

 

[King Cricket]

The current playing XIs of Australia, India, and South Africa are pretty equally poised, tbh. Now the race for the crown is at it's final stage, and we're left with three serious contenders for the top spot. The next couple of years is gonna be big. And I'm specially looking forward to the India-South Africa Test series of 2010. After that, we'd again be touring the Saffers in December. A lot depends on these two mega-clashes. Let's see what happens.

 

[drainpipe32]

Sounds good Hopefully each team will be at full strength, I hate the whinging....

 

[Themer]

On topic I agree with what quite alot people have been saying India are No.1 in terms of ranking but the rankings don't paticularly work when the teams are so closely matched. India, South Africa and Australia are too close to seperate currently for anyone of them to claim to be number 1.

Also those who have claimed people are only now saying that the rankings are rubbish because India have gone top isn't true people have been saying the rankings don't work properly for a long time but they are the best thing we have.

 

[sohum]

But what I object to is criticizing the ICC Rankings just because a team other than Australia, England or South Africa or the country a person hails from is being outplayed by say an India, Sri Lanka or Pakistan consistently. India has been on song since the past 1.5 yrs and its a bit ridiculous to see people attributing our rise in the rankings to a "flaw" in the Rating system than our consistently spectacular performance.

a) No one is criticizing the rankings because because India is on top or because their team is being outplayed. The rankings are being criticized because they are incredibly fickle and are a few months behind the actual situation. That's a reflection of how difficult it is to rank cricket, which is a slow game in terms of fixtures.

b) Again, no one is claiming it is a flaw that India is on top. The ranking system is inherently flawed. People are correctly suggesting that "number 1" doesn't really mean anything in the current climate since it can change from match-to-match.

sohum added 2 Minutes and 8 Seconds later...

Cant agree with that. We are not Number one, but we are close to that. If we can improve our inconsistency (we are already doing work on that), we can be called Number one. The 'ruthlessness' has to get into the minds of the players. When we do well, we got to maintain that streak. We are starting to accumulate victories over sides, but we got to look like we can win every game that we play. I think we can get there when MSD is still captain.

By contradicting Howsie's statement you are suggesting that India's current team is comparable to Australia's dominance back in the day. That's a ridiculous statement to make. Any team that walked into a match against Australia knew that they were probably going to be blasted. That's definitely not the case with India. Australia had something like 16 Test wins in a row? Not all of those were played on competitive pitches... The Australian team were dominant because they won a majority of their games and could win on any pitch in any country.

sohum added 1 Minutes and 26 Seconds later...

Keep it civil guys, or I'll bring my pack of infractions out.

 

[Robelinda]

I dont think any team is going to have a perfect record like Aus in the early 2000's, where we won home and away against everyone. India will never defeat SA in SA, and arent favourites to beat Aus in Aus. SA may win in India but not likely. Aus wont win in India any time soon, but we beat SA in SA and havent lost to them in SA since their re-admission. So all contenders to the Number One throne will all have holes in their record and not be perfect.

 

[aditya123]

I dont think any team is going to have a perfect record like Aus in the early 2000's, where we won home and away against everyone. India will never defeat SA in SA, and arent favourites to beat Aus in Aus. SA may win in India but not likely. Aus wont win in India any time soon, but we beat SA in SA and havent lost to them in SA since their re-admission. So all contenders to the Number One throne will all have holes in their record and not be perfect.

But it is`nt only the top 3 facing and beating each other which matters. Take the example of England. They lost to the West Indies in the Caribbean and then won the Ashes. That does not help when you are trying to get to the top of the rankings as well.

Talking of India not touring SA,Aus,England that often, we toured all of them just over a year and a half ago. As per the FTP tours repeat themselves over a 4 year cycle. However, I don`t remember Sri Lanka touring SA anytime in the recent past or for that matter England in the recent past (they last toured England in 2005 I guess). In fact, Australia have`nt toured Sri Lanka since 2004 as well.
Noone pointed that out.

 

[Highlander999]

But it is`nt only the top 3 facing and beating each other which matters. Take the example of England. They lost to the West Indies in the Caribbean and then won the Ashes. That does not help when you are trying to get to the top of the rankings as well.

TBF, those were some of the worst pitches for bowling on, I had seen in a long time and it was all down to one session's collapse and the Windies tail holding on twice. Then again that is no excuse, but I think we can all safely agree that England are a lot better then the Windies.

 

[aditya123]

TBF, those were some of the worst pitches for bowling on, I had seen in a long time and it was all down to one session's collapse and the Windies tail holding on twice. Then again that is no excuse, but I think we can all safely agree that England are a lot better then the Windies.

I never denied that. Just pointed out how winning against the Aussies and losing to the Windies does not help when it comes to the rankings.