Test team ranking of the decade 2010-2019

[Ab Fan]

As the decade has come to end, this is, to all my brothers and their sisters, the ranking of the previous decade test teams.

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

South Africa were far and away the best test team between 2010-2015 for 6 years with the greatest win of the decade coming against a very strong England side in 2012 and also numerous wins vs Australia compared to very few losses.

India became no.1 team by 2015-end and continued till 2020 before Australia was awarded a belated no.1 test ranking during the tough CoVId times. They were the strongest home team of the decade and also emerged as a team under Virat Kohli who often terrorised the opposition just by a stare.

England had some impressive test wins, thanks to Chef and Ben "never chokes" Stokes but often they found it harder to go past the resillience of Pakistan, West Indies and New Zealand at home.

New Zealand were also a very strong home team and had great amount of success in England, UAE, Sri Lanka and West Indies.

Pakistan under their leader and veteran batsmen, Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan, had great run till 2016 but poor performance in the final three years meant that they have to contend with the sixth spot. During this period, Misbah also achieved a rare feat of having more fans in India than Pakistan and it had nothing to do with India's population.

Sri Lanka had a relatively mediocre decade particularly after Sangakkara'a retirement and is ahead of West Indies and Bangladesh only among the top 9 teams.

Discuss!

 

[Ab Fan]

Australia had several ups and downs in the decade as they started with a home Ashes loss and ended by retaining Ashes away. Their major problem remains that even after being such a strong home team, they lost to South Africa, England and India, all three of them atleast once at home.

 

[Heisenberg111]

I agree with your rankings except that New Zealand and Pakistan should swap places. While NZ had a better H2H against Pak, they didn't beat Australia in a test series, while Pak beat them twice in the last decade. NZ also lost every series to South Africa in the last decade, so their performance against top teams wasn't that good.

 

[Heisenberg111]

Also Sri Lanka had a weird decade. They won in the toughest places (Eng and SA), but were too inconsistent at home losing series after series. But they had the greatest away success in their history in the last decade.

 

[Last Monetarist]

South Africa have been pretty average since about 2016, so theoretically I should be averse to putting them at the top.

Similarly, India were a bit rubbish between 2011 and 2014.

Whereas, England were handed a few drubbings in Australia and India over that period.

On the other hand, my overriding memory of Australia is either 60 all out before lunch at Trent Bridge, or sandpapergate.

What is obvious now is that there were no great teams in the last decade. On gut feeling alone, I reckon India were the strongest team during the last 10 years.

 

[Heisenberg111]

South Africa have been pretty average since about 2016, so theoretically I should be averse to putting them at the top.

Similarly, India were a bit rubbish between 2011 and 2014.

Whereas, England were handed a few drubbings in Australia and India over that period.

On the other hand, my overriding memory of Australia is either 60 all out before lunch at Trent Bridge, or sandpapergate.

What is obvious now is that there were no great teams in the last decade. On gut feeling alone, I reckon India were the strongest team during the last 10 years.

England did win in India in 2012 although they were mauled in 2016. They got drubbings of their lifetime in the UAE though.

 

[subshakerz]

Once Philander joined the SA team in 2011, they gained the extra edge in the pace department to make them the best in the world until Smith and Kallis retired by 2014.

 

[Ab Fan]

Once Philander joined the SA team in 2011, they gained the extra edge in the pace department to make them the best in the world until Smith and Kallis retired by 2014.

That team was equal of great Australian and West Indian team.

Kallis
Smith
ABDV
Amla
Faf
Steyn
Morkel
Philander

That's 8 world class players.