Rest of the World

First topic message reminder :

I figure a thread for cricket stuff from around the world that doesn't warrant a series-thread is useful

VTR wrote:Ireland in with a chance. Target of just under 150 but very passive start to the chase from Afghanistan. Reminds me a lot so far of England collapsing to defeat in the UAE chasing a similar total at the start of 2012

After scores of 0, 0 and 4 in his first three Test innings, pleased that Andrew Balbirnie has got some runs under his belt at the top level - 82 today. I feel Ireland are still second favourites but, as VTR says, they are in with a chance and Balbirnie has played his part in that. He's caught my eye in the past in ODIs, particularly his reading of the game and how he judges the pace of an innings.

Catching up on last weeks ...Aus continuing their unexpectedly decent ODI form in Asia.
They seem to have figured out how to make spinners work for the, finally, partly due to Zampa actually being good in short format, and accepting that Lyons bowling is good enough to get him a place over an all rounder even if that effects the batting/pace depth.
The problem is these pitches ( especially Sharjah where noone ever scores big) are likely very different to the world cup ones. The economy of the spinners will be tested on a flat English pitch where the ball comes onto the bat nicely and the boundaries are pulled in, and they will want an additional quick in the side. To maintain batting depth it would have to be Zampa or Lyon dropped and Maxwell retained.

And where would Warner and Smith fit in? Theres only 4 batting spots, one of which is the captain. Do they push out Khawaja, Handscomb or Marsh? All 3 have been making match winning scores on this tour. Smiths still only played two T20 games since his ban and done nothing at all, Warner a bit more but mixed results. Its obviously nice for them to have that quality of player as a potential option, but bringing them back into the mix is going to be unsettling no matter how much positive talk they make to the media.

Still looking improved on where they were a few months back and could be a real force at the world cup.

Warner and Smith walk back into the Australian side. Carey and Khawaja will miss out. It’s merely tough luck on the ones missing out but you don’t leave out two of the greats of Australian cricket.

Speaking of Warner he hammered 85 on his IPL return

Australia hammered Pakistan again to clinch the series 3-0 with 2 games to spare.

Aaron Finch continued his hot streak with 90 but Glenn Maxwell played the innings that shaped the match. ‘The Big Show’ blasted 71 off 55 balls on a pretty slow pitch.

Pakistan’s top order was blown away by Pat Cummins 3-24 and Adam Zampa claimed a career best 4-43 mowing down the tail. Only Imam 46 and Imad 43 crossed 40 for the hosts.

Six consecutive wins now for the Australians whom will be further buoyed by the returns of Smith, Warner and Starc.

Smith dosent get back into the ODI side right now i dont think, think they will wait for the ashes, however they will do whatever they can to get Warner back in white ball cricket

wisden wrote:Smith dosent get back into the ODI side right now i dont think, think they will wait for the ashes, however they will do whatever they can to get Warner back in white ball cricket

The likes of Khawaja, Marsh and Carey are the ones likely to miss out. Warner will open. There's no debate about it. And you'd have to be pretty brave to leave out Smith tbh. Khawaja has never been a top player so he's probably one under pressure.

Well given Smith and Warner were available play the last two ODIs it's a stretch to say CA would do anything.
The press has turned on them a bit too dragging up rumours that the entire senior test bowling unit threatened to strike unless they were banned and pointing tooth obvious tension that will remain in the camp on both sides from that.
There's no question both will be in the world cup squad but winning 6 on the trot, albeit against some poor opposition, is something they haven't managed for a long time with it without them. They clearly aren't indispensable players.
Talk from CA is of unity and how everyone needs to pull together and play for the team. That only screams more of internal drama.
Captain goldenbollovks is all about " tough selections"
But hey it's a much better place to be in than they were, and any runs Smith and Warner do get in IPL will greatly ease their selection. The worst case would be shoehorning them into the team if they weren't playing well. The minute they score some runs for Aus all will be forgiven.

Australia move 4-0 in the series after Pakistan produced an epic choke.

Maxwell 98, Khawaja 62 and Carey 55 got Australia up to 277. Maxwell fifth time out in the 90s

Pakistan where 218-2 couldn’t get home. Debutant Abid Ali 112 and Rizwan 104 yet they crumbled at the end.

James Pattinson is pressing his case for Ashes selection. Pattinson took 7 wicket in the Sheffield Shield final.

Pattinson is scheduled to play 8 first class matches for Nottingham.

It seems like Richardson, Pattinson and Siddle are playing for two touring spots.

India retain the ICC test mace, for the 3rd year in a row.

Shahid Afridi is five years older than previously thought.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/26654309/shahid-afridi-reveals-real-age-autobiography

India will start tour of WI for 2 tests and 3 ODIs and T20s each.....in a couple of weeks.

Indians adulate and treat their stars like god, but there is aftermath them for not meeting the expectations set, especially when many believed it was realizable.

-It appear like kohli will lose limited over captaincy to Rohit....and its not a bad thing necessary for 2 reasons:

1-Kohli treated tests as premium form of the game & often after a tough test series , he would skip half of the ODI series, seeking rest / break. with split captaincy ODIs will get as much focus as tests.

2-Kohli was found wanting in his captaincy in world cup, as in being too reactive.
He was always seen as trying to fix the limitations of the last game...and in the end resulted in confused batting orders and team selections.

-Dhoni surely will play no more but might be retained as a mentor or possibly even coach / advisor for limited overs.

-Management of ODIs should look at moving Kohli down to No. 4 or 5 vacated by Dhoni and aim that he uses his experience to Marshall the second half of the innings.
Leaving dashing players like Pant. Shaw., Shreyas Iyer to play in the top half of the inning.

-Bumrah 6 shami will get due rest and will be brought back in tests surely. Express Pacer Navdeep saini reportedly hitting 150kph might get a break and left arm seamer Khalil ahmed might be back too.

I cannot imagine how bad the west indies are going to be in that tour

Zimbabwe have been banned again for "political interference" which is a nice way of saying corruption.

Ben Stokes has been nominated for the "New Zealnder of the year" award  

Trevor Baylis will take over as coach of sunrisers hyderbard once his england contract expires

India bring in express Navdeep Saini, leggie Chahar, Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey in team(s) for WI

I think pandey has been picked many times and found inconsistent......ain't a good pick.
Shubhman Gill would have been better.

Sahas back as WK and I think that's with an eye on Pant's workload...but pant's most needed in tests to give depth to our batting and Saha is not in the limited over form.

Bharat would have been a better pick.

Kohli is the captin for all forms but its not realistically possible to stay focused on all forms of cricket and also captain a side in IPL

Mohammad Amir retires from test cricket to concentrate on the white ball game.

LondonTiger wrote:Mohammad Amir retires from test cricket to concentrate on the white ball game.

I think the emergence of Shaheen Afridi might have "retired" him...

World test championship starts now and top-2 teams will play in the final in less than 2 years time.
Its no an all play all...nor is there a strict minimum away game critera
How is the points system?
what if teams are tied on points?
maybe there should be a separate thread for ICC test championships

Yes indeed. The New Era begins now. I'll go with it.  

It's probably a lifeline for Test cricket in a way. Seemed to be petering out in certain parts of the globe. It gives us a points table; something to look at and analyse/predict performances/results for a given block of time. At least it should perk some interest with a Final at the end of a 2-year cycle.

You'd want your team at the end of all those games to be match fit and ready and in form for the big one, wouldn't you?

It's a nice idea, but the World Test Championship has very flawed execution. The points system looks awful. Having a one-off final, rather than a series, is silly. Not every team is playing each other - New Zealand don't have to play England or South Africa, while Australia won't be playing Sri Lanka or the West Indies, so that's a huge advantage to the Kiwis over the Aussies straight away.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019–21_ICC_World_Test_Championship

Duty281 wrote:It's a nice idea, but the World Test Championship has very flawed execution. The points system looks awful. Having a one-off final, rather than a series, is silly. Not every team is playing each other - New Zealand don't have to play England or South Africa, while Australia won't be playing Sri Lanka or the West Indies, so that's a huge advantage to the Kiwis over the Aussies straight away.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019–21_ICC_World_Test_Championship

you are right....not all play all...and the home vs away advantage is not evenly treated in the 2 year cycle.

This is because there are no special schedules designed for the championship......countries stick to their existing FTP schedules...and so the some will have an easy cycle now and a difficult one in the subsequent two years.

What I would like to understand if the points scoring system giving weight to the relative rankings of the side is at-least preserved

Agree that is a good idea in principle, but poorly executed due to essentially them not designing the schedule to make it even for all. Feels very half heartedly done, like many things the ICC do in terms of the global game when it comes to Test cricket.

And the final not being a series is a shame - I've always wondered what it would be like to get a series like say Eng vs Aus in a neutral venue (ie. UAE, India etc) where neither side benefit from home conditions.

KP_fan wrote:What I would like to understand if the points scoring system giving weight to the relative rankings of the side is at-least preserved

Doesn't look like it, the only variable on the points scoring is the length of the series e.g. a test win in a two match series is worth 60 points while in a five match series a win is worth 24 points.

Seems a pretty poor system as, for instance, a 4-1 win for England over Australia is worth fewer points than a 2-0 win over Bangladesh in a two match series!

Duty281 wrote:

KP_fan wrote:What I would like to understand if the points scoring system giving weight to the relative rankings of the side is at-least preserved

Doesn't look like it, the only variable on the points scoring is the length of the series e.g. a test win in a two match series is worth 60 points while in a five match series a win is worth 24 points.

Seems a pretty poor system as, for instance, a 4-1 win for England over Australia is worth fewer points than a 2-0 win over Bangladesh in a two match series!

Oh I see now BCCI has arranged a 2 match series vs WI and another one against BD in a hurry.....so these 4 wins will give India 240 points already

At least it means the more useless countries will get plenty of tests.

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/world-test-championship-explained-a-total-of-71-test-matches-played-over-27-series-5862289/

A good explanation here
-6 series, 3 home and away each for each of the 9 teams
-each series 2 to 5 tests and cumulative 120 points per series
-ICC ranking points system and rankings will count & continue separately
-Ind's away series are in NZ, Aus and WI....an Ind's 5 match series is when hoisting Eng next winter

It's kind of inevitable that the finals would have to be a single test. How else would they fit it in the schedule? Or does everyone else have to take a two month break for it?

The same goes for the everyone plays everyone thing. Now there's a lot more test teams it's not plausible, unless you want to a strict two division system with almost no cross play which would hurt those "developing" teams. It would also damage any hopes of test cricket being profitable which does matter if it's going to have a future.

I don't really see that anyone's "nice to haves" are really practical, except maybe a slightly different coring system based on relative ranking weights? (Then we could complain that the top teams are effectively shutting out the lower ones by not playing them enough ....)

Its a flawed system of course, but the one off test will still have some spice to it and some of the series leading up to it will have a bit more interest for the neutral.

I'll be interested to see how much disparity there is between the champ and world rankings at the end of the cycle. You could end up with the number one team not playing for the trophy, if that is the case it will strongly indicate the scoring system is heavily flawed. I'm kinda hoping someone did an exersice to go back and check historic results against rankings under the two systems to see if they broadly matched up, if they don't it will undermine the credibility of the champs.

I won't be surprised if its an Ind-SL fiinal at Lords

Is that based on Sms fixtures? They are rank awful at test cricket despite their home advantage.

SA have let Ottis Gibson go, not surprising after the less than perfect world cup. Might deserve some sympathy as he wasn't given much time though this is balanced by the fact that they lost the ability to bat and field during his tenure.

Dale Steyn has retired from Test cricket. Not a major surprise, the injuries have been piling up but he has a legitimate argument to be considered (certainly amongst) the best fast bowler of all time. Incredible record.

Here is the full list of Test bowlers who have a better strike rate (minimum 200 wickets):

Steyn was the benchmark for so long, something like 230 odd weeks as number 1 ranked bowler. He leaves just as the next generation have arrived - Cummins, Bumrah and Rabada.

JDizzle wrote:Dale Steyn has retired from Test cricket. Not a major surprise, the injuries have been piling up but he has a legitimate argument to be considered (certainly amongst) the best fast bowler of all time. Incredible record.

Here is the full list of Test bowlers who have a better strike rate (minimum 200 wickets):

Just had a look on Cricinfo and the next best strike rate for bowlers with over 400 wickets is Richard Hadlee with 51, Steyn's is 42.

India has in a lacklustre way won 2 T20s....batting continues to be wobbly
150kph Saini is the only bright spot

Galted wrote:

JDizzle wrote:Dale Steyn has retired from Test cricket. Not a major surprise, the injuries have been piling up but he has a legitimate argument to be considered (certainly amongst) the best fast bowler of all time. Incredible record.

Here is the full list of Test bowlers who have a better strike rate (minimum 200 wickets):

Just had a look on Cricinfo and the next best strike rate for bowlers with over 400 wickets is Richard Hadlee with 51, Steyn's is 42.

Steyn played the majority of his career in a batsman friendly era too. Mind boggling numbers.

Ind white-wash WI in T20s by a 3-0 margin....no big deal...but there are other objectives India has viz:

1-Trying that Pant matures fast into one who could build innings and play to potential

2-Try to other seamers / fast bowlers

3- try back up spin / allrounders

Pant played one good inning and two rash one......the back spinners have been limited in their impact and although Kohli has been verbal in praise of medium pacer Chahr's swing skills.......the real find has been Saini who can bowl at 150kph.

Though the seam bowling combo of Khalil ( left arm fast medium), Saini ( Right arm fast) and Chahr ( right arm medium fast) is not a bad one

Rahul, Dhawan, Pandey didn't prove anything that we didn't know

JDizzle wrote:

Galted wrote:

JDizzle wrote:Dale Steyn has retired from Test cricket. Not a major surprise, the injuries have been piling up but he has a legitimate argument to be considered (certainly amongst) the best fast bowler of all time. Incredible record.

Here is the full list of Test bowlers who have a better strike rate (minimum 200 wickets):

Just had a look on Cricinfo and the next best strike rate for bowlers with over 400 wickets is Richard Hadlee with 51, Steyn's is 42.

Steyn played the majority of his career in a batsman friendly era too. Mind boggling numbers.

Also played the majority of his tests in SA (56 of 93) which has been and absolute paradise for seamers. His figures over the past few years havent even been the best of the south african bowlers. 

Not wishing to downplay him too much because he clearly has been a cut above in terms of top level ability and consistency over a number of years, and his away record is not in anyway shabby. If youre giving him bonus points for being in a batsmans era take them off for South Africa compared to seamers who bowled a lot on drop in pitches in UAE (he averages 33 there, which is still good for there but nothing like his home figures). 

That aside he will go down as number one in his generation. Just a shame he didnt play more, but perhaps thats why he managed to maintain such high standards consistently.

Steyn in SA - 261 @ 21.62 (SR 40.2)
Steyn abroad - 178 @ 24.91 (SR 45.5)

If you just take Steyn’s figures away from home and compare it to all time figures, it’s the fourth best strike rate of all time (min 150 wickets)! He’s an absolute gun and averaging 33 in a whole 4 Test matches in the UAE doesn’t change that. And he did play 90+ Tests...

Hashim Amla retires from all international cricket

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