I’m afraid yet more negativity and pessimistic nonsense.
1. India have nothing to prove? Lol. They have everything to prove. Their away record against big teams has been poor and they regularly get dismantled in England. I would suggest they are desperate to prove their mettle in England and prove that their players can perform away from India.
2. Bogey team ? Really? Is that your cricketing analysis or the only excuse you can think off to negate Pakistan’s performance?
3. Glorified warmup - Someone forgot to tell the paying public who shelled out good money and sold out 3 days in a row expecting to see a proper test match not a warmup. I guess this match doesn’t reflect on their records and points totals either? And the stick they are getting in the press and fans is unwarranted as it’s a mere warmup?
Come on bro - sort your act out. Your posts are reflecting real badly on you as a person.
1. India have been the number one ranked team for a number of years now, and have won a series against every team in this period. They do not have to validate their rankings to PPers who only care about away record.
No team is invincible, and the best teams are those who are dominant at home and competitive away. India are by far the best team not only at home, but in Asian conditions overall.
In South Africa, they played very well and that series could have easily gone their way with a bit of luck. The conditions for batting were awful, and on all three occasions, the team chasing in the fourth innings lost by a hefty margin.
du Plessis was lucky to win two tosses and bat first. It is not a coincidence that the only time he lost the toss, his team got thrashed.
India fully deserve their number one ranking and no team has a stronger claim to the Mace, and that is why they have nothing prove.
2. Pakistan tends to raise their game against England while England tends to lower their game against Pakistan.
England thrashed South Africa at home last summer, the same South Africa won in Australia but we got thrashed in Australia, and the same South Africa would probably trash us in South Africa later this year.
We continue to be pathetic in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, but we have raised our game in England in this decade.
Pakistan have done poorly against weaker teams than England, and England have done well against stronger teams than Pakistan. It is pretty clear that we have had their number.
3. It is a glorified warmup in the sense that regardless of what happens in this series, the highlight of the summer is going to be the five Test series against the number one ranked team.
The 2018 English summer will be remembered for the tour of India, and not the two Tests that the seventh ranked Pakistan played.
It is quite reminiscent to the 2016 English summer, where a low ranked Sri Lanka played two Tests in May, before the high ranked Pakistan played a four Test series.
England blanked Sri Lanka, but they drew 2-2 vs Pakistan, and that defined their summer. No one cared about the series win vs Sri Lanka, since it was little more than a glorified warmup to the main event of the summer - the four Tests vs Pakistan.
England would certainly have preferred to win the series vs Pakistan.
Whatever the outcome of this series, the result of the Indian series will overshadow the Pakistan series, which is essentially an appetizer before the main course.
