If not India, then who is the truly deserving number 1 ranked team?

[sohailmm]

Going by current state of Test Nations , there is no clear winner perhaps England deserve to be no 1 more than others.

South Africa is totally at loss now and would take some time to recover.
Pakistan need to win in Australia or South Africa to make any claim for number 1 .
India is number 1 ranking is enhanced by sheer number of wins due to the high frequency they play with which test cricket.

Rankings are merely a calculation system and would always have limitations due to imbalance in the number of home and away tests a team plays .

In perfect scenario when all teams are playing equal home and away matches with each country getting same number of test matches each year, it may be considered worthy measure.

IMO England claim is most strongest of all .
While India -Pakistan- South Africa - South Africa are about the same level.

 

[Mamoon]

You are very upset and must feel embarrassed after spending hours hyping up the Indian team only for them to be destroyed in the first two tests. Now all of a sudden you dont care about the Indian team

I never claimed that this Indian team is invincible. I simply said that they deserve the number one ranking because they are the best home team and compete well away. Yes they got thrashed in this game, but they competed very well at Edgbaston and in South Africa.

Pakistan won 3 out of 6 tests in England in the last few years. So far India has played two and lost two. Im not sure how this means India is a better team? Perhaps you can call the Indian government and tell them to stop being scared of Pakistan and play them?

Because cricket is played outside England as well. Doing better in one particular country means nothing. India are overall a superior team than Pakistan because they do better in most conditions. For Pakistani fans, England might be the end of the world, but it doesn't work like that.

Perhaps you're not up to date with cricket news, the ICC want a test championship because the rankings and mace mean nothing.

I am up to date but you are misinformed. The Test Championship has everything to do with the rankings. It will start in July 2019 and end in June 2021. The top two ranked teams will play the final and the winner will get the Mace/trophy.

The ICC have not introduced a championship because the rankings and the mace are useless; they have introduced the championship to allow the top two ranked teams to play a final in order to create more excitement and drama.

It is an attempt to bring eyeballs back to Test cricket because people are always interest in tournament finals. So please explain how does the rankings mean nothing when you cannot play the Test Championship final unless you are ranked in the top two?

India will definitely play in the actual Test Championship Final in June 2021, but I think Pakistan can definitely play a fantasy Test Championship Final on PakPassion based on the fantasy PakPassion Test rankings, with the fantasy PakPassion Mace up for grabs.

 

[Mamoon]

Going by current state of Test Nations , there is no clear winner perhaps England deserve to be no 1 more than others.

South Africa is totally at loss now and would take some time to recover.
Pakistan need to win in Australia or South Africa to make any claim for number 1 .
India is number 1 ranking is enhanced by sheer number of wins due to the high frequency they play with which test cricket.

Rankings are merely a calculation system and would always have limitations due to imbalance in the number of home and away tests a team plays .

In perfect scenario when all teams are playing equal home and away matches with each country getting same number of test matches each year, it may be considered worthy measure.

IMO England claim is most strongest of all .
While India -Pakistan- South Africa - South Africa are about the same level.

England have been completely rubbish for a while now. Not sure how they have a stronger claim than India and even Australia.

 

[CricVet]

AT LEAST Pak plays well its T20, home or abroad, to reflect ranking. One has to be a tool to defend India's fake #1 test ranking which is based on doctored wickets. Eng wicket are sporting which are balanced for batting and all kind of bowling.

 

[Mamoon]

AT LEAST Pak plays well its T20, home or abroad, to reflect ranking. One has to be a tool to defend India's fake #1 test ranking which is based on doctored wickets. Eng wicket are sporting which are balanced for batting and all kind of bowling.

From March 2016 onwards, since Pakistan revived its fortunes in T20s, it has played zero matches against India, zero matches against South Africa, a grand total of one match against England, a 2-1 record against a weak Australian team and a dozen matches against poor teams and minnows.

On the contrary, India has beaten every top side en route to the number one ranking.

 

[gazza619]

England have been completely rubbish for a while now. Not sure how they have a stronger claim than India and even Australia.

Now that Sam Curran and Adil Rashid are in the test team, I am sure England would be more competitive overseas. They just need to find one more stable batsman top of the order.

 

[CricVet]

From March 2016 onwards, since Pakistan revived its fortunes in T20s, it has played zero matches against India, zero matches against South Africa, a grand total of one match against England, a 2-1 record against a weak Australian team and a dozen matches against poor teams and minnows.

On the contrary, India has beaten every top side en route to the number one ranking.

The same Ind lost to WI twice in T20 - once in WI and once in UAE FULL SQUAD - so do not give nonsense that they pay no attention to T20 which happens to be the biggest money and crowd magnet of all cricket.

Ind got to #1 ranking AGAIN on doctored surfaces. Same as Pak when they got to #1 in tests - all on lifeless, dull cricket pitches. I rank English pitches the best in terms of support for all types of bowling IN GENERAL which produces exciting cricket.

 

[Slog]

I am not upset. I don't care about the Indian team. In fact, I am happy because England is my second team after Pakistan. However, I make no bones about the fact that India is a simply a better team than Pakistan and has been for around 15-16 years now.

The Mace is a trophy and it is the only thing to play for in Test cricket. The only thing that matters in Test cricket these days is the number one ranking, since pretty much every team struggles to win big series away.

You are clearly irritated so no point suggesting otherwise

However unlike others I think its because you have been proven wrong again. You, like others including me, felt that the Indian team would compete much better in England because of the following reasons:

1) The England side is fairly mediocre. It failed to dominate a poor Pakistani team. The batting line up is, more or less, a joke. The pacers have to take on too much load and Anderson is coming off a layoff

2) The Indian side is well stocked and was very competitive in South Africa giving a sense that it had mettle for overseas contests

3) For majority of this Indian side, this is their 2nd tour of England so they are better equipped with past experience and familiarity to pressure of a test series in England

4) The Indian side is well prepared in terms of acclimatization and conditions having been in the country for over a month

5) The test series is starting really late (August start for a 5 match series must be a record) so the early English summer conditions are long gone. And add to that we are coming off one of the hottest and driest English summers in recent memory

So all these factors meant that it was a fair assumption to make that India will be very competitive in England and have a great chance of actually winning the series. Which is why the drubbing so far is hard to take.

 

[JaDed]

No, because it was your batting that let you down in the first place.

It did, but again in the first test when Sam Curran ran away with the match players like Bhuvi and Bumrah come handy there.
As i said its all excuses doesn't matter Zilch now.

 

[mkyawar]

From March 2016 onwards, since Pakistan revived its fortunes in T20s, it has played zero matches against India, zero matches against South Africa, a grand total of one match against England, a 2-1 record against a weak Australian team and a dozen matches against poor teams and minnows.

On the contrary, India has beaten every top side en route to the number one ranking.

Pakistan played against NZ in NZ and came back from behind to win 2-1. Pakistan whitewashed WI, the team that thrashed your ***** in 2016 in the semi final

 

[mkyawar]

India lost in SA as well. They beat SA in odis with no Faf, AB, deKock. And a lot of people think that India will do well in Aus with no Bhuvi and Bumrah. BK will be a liability in Australia and Bumrah is still raw. Secondly Australia has a better bowling attack than SA and Eng. Lyon> Rashid>Maharaj.

1 ?????
2 ?????
3 Usman khawaja
4 Peter Handscomb
5 Shaun Marsh
6 Mitchell Marsh
7 Tim Paine
8 Mitchell Starc
9 Pat Cummins
10 Hazlewood
11 Lyon

This is a decent team in Australia. Finch, Renshaw, Burns, Maxwell are competing for the other 2 positions.

That being said, This series is not over but not looking good for India.

 

[KingKhanWC]

I never claimed that this Indian team is invincible. I simply said that they deserve the number one ranking because they are the best home team and compete well away. Yes they got thrashed in this game, but they competed very well at Edgbaston and in South Africa.

Wasnt your prediction 2-1 to England? Well you're half way there. They have been humiliated in Birmingham and in London. Im not sure how not being able to even chase less than 200 is competing well.

Because cricket is played outside England as well. Doing better in one particular country means nothing. India are overall a superior team than Pakistan because they do better in most conditions. For Pakistani fans, England might be the end of the world, but it doesn't work like that.

Pakistan and India have played the same team in the same year in the same country. Cricket is not a simple game where you can go back cherry pick stats or results and claim you are right. This years tests against England is the best comparison and so far Pak won 50% of the tests and India 0%.

I am up to date but you are misinformed. The Test Championship has everything to do with the rankings. It will start in July 2019 and end in June 2021. The top two ranked teams will play the final and the winner will get the Mace/trophy.

The ICC have not introduced a championship because the rankings and the mace are useless; they have introduced the championship to allow the top two ranked teams to play a final in order to create more excitement and drama.

It is an attempt to bring eyeballs back to Test cricket because people are always interest in tournament finals. So please explain how does the rankings mean nothing when you cannot play the Test Championship final unless you are ranked in the top two?

India will definitely play in the actual Test Championship Final in June 2021, but I think Pakistan can definitely play a fantasy Test Championship Final on PakPassion based on the fantasy PakPassion Test rankings, with the fantasy PakPassion Mace up for grabs.

I never suggested the rankings are not linked to the test championship, of course they are. My point was the rankings do not confirm who is the best team, therefore the ICC want to introduce the test championship. This will mean teams play each other home and away with a new points system. Therefore the rankings will be very different. India might not even be into final and you should know better than to make predictions with your track record.

 

[slipcatch]

I am not upset. I don't care about the Indian team. In fact, I am happy because England is my second team after Pakistan. However, I make no bones about the fact that India is a simply a better team than Pakistan and has been for around 15-16 years now.

The Mace is a trophy and it is the only thing to play for in Test cricket. The only thing that matters in Test cricket these days is the number one ranking, since pretty much every team struggles to win big series away.

Neither have played each other and in last two months both team have played in England against England.

India isn't a better team at the moment.

 

[Mainul]

Yes, even Bangladesh manged to beat SRL on an away tour. I think thats our only Away test win lol.

We beat WI and Zimbos too away.Thats some incredible achievement

 

[Madplayer]

Bla bla bla. All excuses.

INdia is playing without BK who was built to bowling these conditions and Bumrah who is much better than Ishant. But that’s no excuse.

Iirc, Lankans at that time also were playing without Sanga and Mahela.

Its not an excuse. Its a fact that Srilankans were far more experienced than Pakistanis in tests. Pakistan even had a new test captain let alone the players. That series was an aberration more than anything. For India this is a norm.

 

[Bilal Ahmad15]

Rankings don't really judge a country that well in my opinion. The new test league championship will be very good and also the ODI league.

 

[MMHS]

IND is no. 1 and deservingly so. Ranking is based on a point scoring system that doesn’t factor home & away results, which is probably the biggest flaw of any ranking system, since cricket, particularly Test cricket as a sports is influenced highest by venues among all major sports. But, these days more or less every team is dominant at home (or similar conditions), and struggles away, therefore even if the H/A is factored, still I am sure IND will be at top in points because no team has dominated home series as brutally as them and they play lots of games at home.

Overall best Test team - it’s a bit difficult to judge at this moment. May be, I would tend to go for full strength Aussies, because they are almost equally dominant at home & quite decent away also. They are at per with SAF at home/away because SAF also comes from very similar condition. IND’s equivalents for AUS-SAF would have been PAK at home, whom they don’t play - in that regard if I take SAF out of equation, Aussies are as dominant as IND at home. But Aussies are decent away as well - apart from one series in SRL, they won an active Test in SAF & IND, dominated WI in WIN, won in NZ and made it 3-2 in ENG.

There is no dominant team right now, and no team who can win series at adverse condition or out of comfort zone. I think, about a year and a half back few Indian posters were boasting if this lot is the best ever Indian team or not, for which I thought even the 1980s Indian team was better, at least in batting, because they could compete away. And comparison with that AUS/WI.......

 

[Minnowbasher]

No1 deserves number 1 ranking. Every1 wins at home and loses away from home. Asian teams always lose in non Asian conditions and non Asian teams always lose in Asian conditions.

 

[Savage]

India absolutely deserves no 1 ranking.But they might not be best team in the world right now.Batting and fielding (catching) not looking up to standard.

 

[RamLakhan]

It's only a ranking we need test championship to know the real deal.

#1 in other formats doesn't matter, it only mattered in tests coz the mace but with test championship that wouldn't matter either.

The current bilateral series and the rankings itself is a kind of Test Championship! You can't have explicit Test Championship organized, it is not feasible, it is not workable. Even if you do it, by making every team to play in a neutral venue, even then conspiracy theories will pop out saying Team A had better favorable schedule, Team B were unlucky, etc! So if you are really concerned about Test Cricket and the quality of teams then you have to accept these rankings and move on (Further you should want each and every test match of each and every country - the full series, because only then you can analyze the ups & downs of certain teams in different conditions). Otherwise even Test matches (more so, at least in ODIs pitches everywhere are flat & almost similar) will be fluke wins (as claimed by many) that India won in India, Australia won in Australia last two times!

 

[Hasan123]

India deserve the number 1 ranking but I don't think there is a clear number 1 team.

 

[happydavy]

Pakistan has to be no 1 . They can play anywhere around the world and win in most countries. Pakistan team can challange India with a tough fight on rank turners as well. I would say it is between South africa and Pakistan.

Playing anywhere in the world is no criteria for ranking', even Nepal can play anywhere in the world. Pakistan winning in most countries ? When was the last time they won a test (forgot series) in Australia or South Africa?

 

[The Googly]

I will answer this based on a combination of ‘the ability to perform everywhere’ and on ‘cricketing ability’ :

True test rankings

1. South Africa
2. Australia
3. Pakistan
4. England
5. India
6. New Zealand
7. Sri Lanka
8. West Indies
9. Zimbabwe and Bangladesh joint

 

[Mamoon]

I will answer this based on a combination of ‘the ability to perform everywhere’ and on ‘cricketing ability’ :

True test rankings

1. South Africa
2. Australia
3. Pakistan
4. England
5. India
6. New Zealand
7. Sri Lanka
8. West Indies
9. Zimbabwe and Bangladesh joint

Good. So who is going to play in the “True ICC Test Championship Final” in June 2021?

Will it be South Africa vs Australia? Or will Pakistan get into the top 2 by then?

Also, where will it be played? (other than in your head).

 

[ManFan]

Playing anywhere in the world is no criteria for ranking', even Nepal can play anywhere in the world. Pakistan winning in most countries ? When was the last time they won a test (forgot series) in Australia or South Africa?

Since you have mentioned Australia and South Africa:

India: THREE wins since 2007 with three tours of each.

Pakistan: ZERO wins since 2007 with three tours of AUS and two tours of SA. (With one tour coming later this year).

 

[cricketworm]

I love lankans. We obliterated them and lately they have been beating everyone. Pakistan. SA. to keep the ranking sanity.