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India has played the most number of matches against minnows since 2013!

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Hawkeye

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With their top ICC rankings and the inflated stats of their batsmen, one has to wonder what are they doing differently from the other teams.

To find answers to these questions, I had to do some digging.

So, I pulled the records. The number of matches played by the lowest 5 ranked sides, across Tests/ODIs/T20s - playing against the top 6 sides.


- India, Pakistan, Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa.

against

- West Indies, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka

Here are the results.

Country = Number of matches against WI/ZIM/BD/SL:

India = 107
Pakistan = 107
New Zealand = 73
South Africa = 70
England = 62
Australia = 48

(Link)

So... you were probably expecting that IND is the real minnow basher. And by bashing only minnows they've inflated their stats.

:srini

Not true.

Pakistan has played the same number of matches, but are at the almost-bottom of rankings.

Our batsmen also do not have the same inflated stats. Why are we not taking advantage of that?

Real kudos goes to Australia though. They mostly play against the competitive sides, and as a result are competitive themselves. Minus the recent horrible away outings in Tests.


P.S. BD might not be minnows now in LOIs played in Asia. But are still low ranked!
 
You forgot to add Pakistan in the list.

Oh sorry we didn't play much against you after all. :yk
 
Isn't Pakistan consistently among the 5 lowest ranked teams in the two most important formats? The attitude towards teams such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka who have outperformed Pakistan in ODIs and Tests respectively is really poor at times.
 
West Indies upto the 1980s only played minnows. Viv and WI as a whole are minnow bashers
 
SL have only turned into minnow in the last 1 year.

Till 2016 they were a top LOI side.
 
It's because all formats combined, India generally plays the highest number of matches out of all teams.

Also BCCI tends to play against the smaller boards (SL,WI,etc) as a bargaining tactic to secure their votes in the ICC council.
 
We've played the max number of games against everybody full stop.

Slice and dice it as you like.
 
Hawkeye said:
Well, right now you're playing your full strength team even at home against the WI.

Kohli doing all the bashinng!
Click to expand...

You do know they did these to teams ike Australia as well right? On Inian pitches like Gauhati everyone is a minnow for India.
 
What's the cut off for minnow?

Since 2013, W/L ratio

minnow.jpg

To filter the noise,

All countries against top 5 teams


minnowrop5.jpg
 
AuxiliA said:
It's because all formats combined, India generally plays the highest number of matches out of all teams.

Also BCCI tends to play against the smaller boards (SL,WI,etc) as a bargaining tactic to secure their votes in the ICC council.
Click to expand...

Varun said:
We've played the max number of games against everybody full stop.

Slice and dice it as you like.
Click to expand...

Well yes.

The thread is intentionally titled to make IND look bad. Read my full post. Pak has played the same number of matches.

So, if we were really that good, we also would've been at the top. But we aren't.

Credit to IND.
 
Rohit averages 44 against SL and 40 against Zimbabwe, so that actually brings down his career average. Kohli averages 50 against Zimbabwe, which brings down his average of 58. Dhawan averages 42 against Zimbabwe, 39 against Bangladesh, and 38 against Wi, all of which bring down his career average.

So what inflation are you talking about? If anything, their stats are inflated by playing against Australia, South Africa, etc.
 
Hawkeye said:
Well, right now you're playing your full strength team even at home against the WI.

Kohli doing all the bashinng!
Click to expand...

We were playing 3 minnows (Pakistan, Bangladesh, and SL, going by the stats posted above) in the Asia Cup but rested Kohli and a couple of others. Kohli would've hit 10000 runs a long time ago had he played in that tournament.
 
Sachin136 said:
We were playing 3 minnows (Pakistan, Bangladesh, and SL, going by the stats posted above) in the Asia Cup but rested Kohli and a couple of others. Kohli would've hit 10000 runs a long time ago had he played in that tournament.
Click to expand...

Why so salty? :najam

Calm down and read the full thread. That was a masala line starter.
 
In T20s WI and Sri Lanka aren't minnows, even now.

In tests Sri Lanka was very good till 2015/16, hell even now they will steamroll most SENA teams in Asian conditions.

In ODIs Sri Lanka was a top team till 2016 and Bangladeshis especially on Asian pitches have been a handful since the 2015 WC.

I'll argue that SENA teams are fortunate to play less against Lanka/Bangladesh/WI/Afg these days, especially in away turf because many nasty surprises await.
 
Hawkeye said:
Why so salty? :najam

Calm down and read the full thread. That was a masala line starter.
Click to expand...

I read the part about Pakistan (though your batsmen have some pretty good stats too, like Babar). Just talking about the inflated stats part.
 
All the Asian teams except India and among non-Asians, WI are minnows today. Runs against them don't count. And runs against third string Australian bowlers on flat Australian wickets also don't count.
 
Hawkeye said:
Well, right now you're playing your full strength team even at home against the WI.

Kohli doing all the bashinng!
Click to expand...

Star Sports pays BCCI in the millions to ensure that we play our best XI at home. They created some noise when Kohli skipped the Asia Cup too.
 
I did look up the records of teams listed in OP as non minnows - India, Pak, NZ, Eng, Aus, and Saffers.

Counting only the matches played among these teams, the most successful team has been....Enzed.

2013.jpg

Pakistan's been woeful, unsurprisingly.
 
Hawkeye said:
Well yes.

The thread is intentionally titled to make IND look bad. Read my full post. Pak has played the same number of matches.

So, if we were really that good, we also would've been at the top. But we aren't.

Credit to IND.
Click to expand...

Not sure about your numbers. India has played 105, and not 107 against Bang/SL/Zimb/WI.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/en...anval1=span;team=6;template=results;type=team

If you include Afg, you get to 108.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/en...anval1=span;team=6;template=results;type=team

You correctly noted that Pakistan has played 107 against Bang/SL/Zimb/WI.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/en...anval1=span;team=7;template=results;type=team

If you include Afghanistan, then Pakistan has played 110 games:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/en...anval1=span;team=7;template=results;type=team

Anyway, playing minnows doesn't help a lot with rankings as you don't gain much points but can lose a bunch.
 
Good thing is we have not played our full strength squad in majority of those series. Mostly bowlers and middle order batsmen have been rotated though. Wish we had rested/rotated our top 3 as well.
 
Hawkeye said:
With their top ICC rankings and the inflated stats of their batsmen, one has to wonder what are they doing differently from the other teams.

To find answers to these questions, I had to do some digging.

So, I pulled the records. The number of matches played by the lowest 5 ranked sides, across Tests/ODIs/T20s - playing against the top 6 sides.


- India, Pakistan, Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa.

against

- West Indies, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka

Here are the results.

Country = Number of matches against WI/ZIM/BD/SL:

India = 107
Pakistan = 107
New Zealand = 73
South Africa = 70
England = 62
Australia = 48

(Link)

So... you were probably expecting that IND is the real minnow basher. And by bashing only minnows they've inflated their stats.

:srini

Not true.

Pakistan has played the same number of matches, but are at the almost-bottom of rankings.

Our batsmen also do not have the same inflated stats. Why are we not taking advantage of that?

Real kudos goes to Australia though. They mostly play against the competitive sides, and as a result are competitive themselves. Minus the recent horrible away outings in Tests.


P.S. BD might not be minnows now in LOIs played in Asia. But are still low ranked!
Click to expand...

So Sri Lanka have been a minnow throughout their history?
 
Rana said:
Hahahahaahah

The arrogance of Indian fans
Click to expand...

What arrogance? They whitewashed you in the Test series when they played you in the UAE. We immediately toured them after that and whitewashed them in the Test, ODI and T20 series respectively.

Is any of the info wrong?
 
Last edited:
Hitman said:
What arrogance? They whitewashed you in the Test series when they played you in the UAE. We immediately toured them after that and whitewashed them in the Test, ODI and T20 series respectively.

Is any of the info wrong?
Click to expand...
I think we also whitewashed them in odi and t20s so I think they must be horrible to be whitewashed by pak in LOI the rest we knwo why we lost to them in tests.at the end I will say srilanka is minnow in loi these days.
 
So what? only Pakistani players performance don't count against minnow.
 
I am glad that they played less richer boards. We wish to spread wealth as much as we can. :srini
 
Hawkeye said:
Well, right now you're playing your full strength team even at home against the WI.

Kohli doing all the bashinng!
Click to expand...

India should find out their best combination for WC in the available number of ODIs... Kohli should see the scheme of things himself on the field... Probably he will be rested for some latter matches even in the ongoing series (if India wins first 3 matches)
 
India plays their B team, still bashes them. Whereas pak always plays their full strength.
 
If you take the stats against better ranked nations, in that case as well India will lead with more number of matches
 
rudra said:
India plays their B team, still bashes them. Whereas pak always plays their full strength.
Click to expand...

You are wrong here mate. Pakistan's best XI is always the guys who are not playing. And this is the fact in all the cases until they win games:virat
 
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