Test Championship Thread

[Mp812]

So after all Asian legends from Pataudi to kapil to Gavaskar to Ganguly to Dhoni , Imran to Akram to Inzimam , Mendis to Arjuna to Sangakara, the Asian captain to win a test series in Australia is V.Kohli . Congrats. Kohli came close to winning test series in SA. The first 2 test matches he lost in SA were due to toss losses and luck going SA but India were in the game hunt till the end and both matches were close.
England series , Kohlis team were outplayed in 2 test matches while 2 were again close.

However. it looks like the Indian test team for next 5 years ,especially test championship is in place.
Shaw and Agrawal seem good decent openers.
Kohli and Pujara will form the backbone of the batting for next 2-3 years.
KL Rahul if he gets his form back will replace Rahane or else Shubhman Gill is knocking on the doors for 5th position.
Vihari has done well as 6th batter..Pandya or Vihari , one of them, will most likely occupy that 6th place based on where India is playing
Risabh Panth seems to have grabbed Saha position ( unlucky Saha one can say).
As for Bowling : Bumrah, Shami, Ishant, Bhuvi will be rotated and three seamers will be played and for spinners ,one out of Ashwin/Jadeja/ Kuldeep will play as is needed.
If two spinners are needed, two seamer will be played and Pandya might just pip out Vihari in that scenario as third seamer who can score 30 odd runs.

Seems India will be strong contender team for Test Championship and only SA and England seem marginally better than this Indian team but all 3 teams have weakness which can be exploited by each other. All other teams have bigger weaknesses and Eng/Ind/SA and maybe Aus later on( Smith returns) seem to top tier test countries as of now.

 

[SportsWarrior]

SA and England are no way better than India. at home all teams are good and India will boss at home. While touring only Aus and India will do better than others touring India and Aus. That might be the different in the end. India, Aus, Eng have very good chances. i hope it will be India/Aus final. Dark horse is Pak as they have good bowlers. SA also might do well as, hopefully, chocking over two innings will be difficult even for SA

 

[a_tahir]

SA and England are no way better than India. at home all teams are good and India will boss at home. While touring only Aus and India will do better than others touring India and Aus. That might be the different in the end. India, Aus, Eng have very good chances. i hope it will be India/Aus final. Dark horse is Pak as they have good bowlers. SA also might do well as, hopefully, chocking over two innings will be difficult even for SA

Stop being so biased towards India.
India lost against eng 4-1 and against Sa 2-1.
It doesn't matter how close the matches were or were not the fact of the matter is that India lost 2 out of the 3 away series they played in 2018.

Sa are very good at home they haven't lost a series in Sa in a long time and beat Aus in Aus 3-1 when Warner and Smith were in the team.

 

[SportsWarrior]

Stop being so biased towards India.
India lost against eng 4-1 and against Sa 2-1.
It doesn't matter how close the matches were or were not the fact of the matter is that India lost 2 out of the 3 away series they played in 2018.

Sa are very good at home they haven't lost a series in Sa in a long time and beat Aus in Aus 3-1 when Warner and Smith were in the team.

What bias do you see. i just stated an obvious fact. India did and will do better in ENG/SA/AUS then those same team will do in India. India lost to Eng 1-4 after losing four tosses, but wiped them clean at home 4-0 after losing all tosses. India lost to SA 1-2 after losing two vital tosses and but won 3-0 at home (would have been 4-0 but for rain) at home. With Aus it was same both at home and away but the history suggests that India will do as well at home as Aus will do against India at their home in Australia. So it is factually correct that India will do better at ENG/SA/AUS than those teams will do in India.

 

[a_tahir]

What bias do you see. i just stated an obvious fact. India did and will do better in ENG/SA/AUS then those same team will do in India. India lost to Eng 1-4 after losing four tosses, but wiped them clean at home 4-0 after losing all tosses. India lost to SA 1-2 after losing two vital tosses and but won 3-0 at home (would have been 4-0 but for rain) at home. With Aus it was same both at home and away but the history suggests that India will do as well at home as Aus will do against India at their home in Australia. So it is factually correct that India will do better at ENG/SA/AUS than those teams will do in India.

Ok mate.
Calm down IT is really not that deep

 

[SportsWarrior]

Stop being so biased towards India.
India lost against eng 4-1 and against Sa 2-1.
It doesn't matter how close the matches were or were not the fact of the matter is that India lost 2 out of the 3 away series they played in 2018.

Sa are very good at home they haven't lost a series in Sa in a long time and beat Aus in Aus 3-1 when Warner and Smith were in the team.

SA are beatable at home. Ind/Pak could have won it. We lost it due to an impatient captain and loss of tosses. Even now Pak can win a test in SA. Give few years India will consistently win against SA. Just so you know India has a positive W/L against SA this decade in all formats and will continue that trend as most of the Indian match winners are very young

 

[SportsWarrior]

Ok mate.
Calm down IT is really not that deep

Bro, you made a comment and i clarified. What i stated is pretty obvious and the only reason India is a No 1 team. they just do better while touring compared to what the others do while touring India. I don't have any delusion that we are world beating team.

 

[Mp812]

Stop being so biased towards India.
India lost against eng 4-1 and against Sa 2-1.
It doesn't matter how close the matches were or were not the fact of the matter is that India lost 2 out of the 3 away series they played in 2018.

Sa are very good at home they haven't lost a series in Sa in a long time and beat Aus in Aus 3-1 when Warner and Smith were in the team.

Yes. Agreed India lost to SA and England the test series ,but if one sees it from neutral point of view ( without preconcieved bias), the very fact that in 4 out of 6 matches lost, India fought neck to neck till the end in 4 out of 6 , despite loosing toss in all 6 matches , it is an indicator of a sort. The moment toss fell in their favor, they won.
And Kohli will not always loose the toss.
Anyway ,yes, India lost those series ,but then so did SA and Eng when they toured Asia and they did not even give a tough fight. England with their batting might give tougher fights but with Broad and anderson on last legs...well its not gonna be easy for them.
I agree with one poster that Pakistan is darkhorse but their bowling which is traditionally their strength is not a consistent bowling unit anymore ( NZ and SL beat them in UAE recently).
Aus is other darkhorse, but then they are not same as old Australian team which was consistent that teams did not dare to ask them to follow on. This new Aus team even after Smith/Warner return have had collapses a lot frequently.

 

[Mp812]

I forgot to mention NZ is one strong contender too

 

[The Viper]

England could do well as they are finally selecting players based on consistent domestic performances. They can be really competitive away now in most places.

 

[hadi123]

SA and England are no way better than India. at home all teams are good and India will boss at home. While touring only Aus and India will do better than others touring India and Aus. That might be the different in the end. India, Aus, Eng have very good chances. i hope it will be India/Aus final. Dark horse is Pak as they have good bowlers. SA also might do well as, hopefully, chocking over two innings will be difficult even for SA

I agree. SA and England won't be able to compete in India to the extent India competed in SA and England.

 

[Amjid Javed]

I find it hilarious that india fans think inly reason they lose games its due to the toss of a coin been lost. Delusion at its finest.

 

[Arsalan Pro]

England could do well as they are finally selecting players based on consistent domestic performances. They can be really competitive away now in most places.

Let's see, I don't think they can win series in Australia, UAE and India with their current team.

 

[SportsWarrior]

I find it hilarious that india fans think inly reason they lose games its due to the toss of a coin been lost. Delusion at its finest.

No they lose because of difference in skill set. My point is, Eng/SA/Aus/NZ lack of skills to play in India is more than India's lack of skill in those countries.. you can clearly verify based on the available data and results. Toss is also a factor as most good teams compete well while touring when they win toss. Every time India won the toss in Aus/SA/Eng they won the match. If Pak wins toss, there is a more than even chance they will win the third test. Same thing happened to SL/NZ when they toured UAE.. all this can be clearly verified unless of course you believe toss plays no role. One place where toss does not seem to play much role is ironically in India.

 

[Napa]

I find it hilarious that india fans think inly reason they lose games its due to the toss of a coin been lost. Delusion at its finest.

Delusion is ignoring what is happening in the real world. The last 20 times Kohli won the toss, he has not lost a game.

 

[Hasan123]

India will be the favourites .

 

[a_tahir]

Bro, you made a comment and i clarified. What i stated is pretty obvious and the only reason India is a No 1 team. they just do better while touring compared to what the others do while touring India. I don't have any delusion that we are world beating team.

Ok fine mate.

 

[Mp812]

Winning the toss increases probability of winning game by 20% as stats in last 2 years will probably show. Nothing delusional about it or the commentary teams wont be discussing option the toss be discarded and visiting team be given the choice of batting first or second. In countries where the pitch helps bowlers considerably in first day first session, it makes a lot of difference. In place like SA it is observed that batting is easier on day 2 compared to day 1

 

[BDfanforever]

Come on man, how can every single loss by IND in RSA and ENG this year was due to loss or sheer luck?

Effectively they were 1 W and 5 L not taking into account of dead rubber games.

Also, historically AUS, RSA, and ENG performed much better at IND then vice versa.

IND at RSA, ENG, AUS
17W 73L 40D .232 W/L

AUS, ENG, RSA at IND
31W 48L 46D 0.646 W/L

 

[WengerOut]

Come on man, how can every single loss by IND in RSA and ENG this year was due to loss or sheer luck?

Effectively they were 1 W and 5 L not taking into account of dead rubber games.

Also, historically AUS, RSA, and ENG performed much better at IND then vice versa.

IND at RSA, ENG, AUS
17W 73L 40D .232 W/L

AUS, ENG, RSA at IND
31W 48L 46D 0.646 W/L

We should be talking about recent history right. Otherwise everyone know what happened in the general history. And if we go by general history, there is no point Ban should be playing cricket. If you can remove your facade of fake neutralist and look at the facts, it is pretty clear that India lost 80% of the matches in the away stretch after being in contention until last day even after losing toss 100% of time. Now turn that to India home stretch, Eng were decimated 0-4 even after India losing 4 of the 5 tosses and Eng posting 400 and 450 as first innings total. Also Eng, SA and Aus lost to India at their home after losing the toss. And if you still want to go for general history just to satisfy the fake neutralist in you, then we should agree that Aus followed by WI should be the best teams now.