Rest of the World

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Rahkeem Cornwall makes it to West Indies Test squad
He is an all-rounder from the islands of Antigua and is perhaps the heaviest cricketer ever. He stands at a towering height of 6’6” and weighs around 140 kg.

Cornwall made his first-class debut in 2014 and has since become a regular for Leewards Islands, even captaining them earlier this year. He has 260 wickets from 55 first-class matches and finished as the leading bowler in the most recent regional four-day tournament.

According to Kohli/Shastri, Pant’s exclusion was due to wreck less batting in the limited overs matches. Seems odd but as his red ball record is good

Flat track bully Rohit Sharma scores a century in each innings, only the second Indian opener to achieve this - the legendary Gavaskar was the other.

Rohit has four more Tests to fill his boots before India tour New Zealand and Boult exposes Rohit

--Wasn't SA's batting but rather bowling that let them down.
They did bat very well in first inning to get 435 and did almost 200 on a D5 Indian pitch.

--From and Indian point of view I have following observations:

1-While Jadeja/ Ashwin template is good.....I think Ashwin's fitness is an issue...his arms and fingers get tired.......his 8 wickets notwithstanding.

Even in Eng and Aus....he did well in first tests and then started tiring and dropping off in potency and retunrs.

2-Shami and Umesh use the Indian conditions quite well and in every other game produce one burst of 140kph+ fast, full reverse that breaks the opponents' innings down with 3 wickets burst in the middle of an inning...counter intutive to the batters focus & mindset on countering vicious spin.

3-India needs to drop one seamer and bring on Kuldeep as the 3rd spinners next game

Rabada carries a lot of hype but he lacks skills when the conditions don’t suit him. Steyn was many leagues above Rabada

'Double the points for away wins' - Virat Kohli's tip for World Test Championship

Think SA will need triple runs to be in with a chance to win a game when they lose the toss. Id argue the "choice with the visiting side" is a better option to even the chances of winning than worrying about rewarding the rare away wins with champs points. 

Nortje selected ahead of Piedt and gone for 27 off his debut 5 over spell. India cruising already at 96/1 on another pancake. SA are a declining force, and this does show just how great players like Steyn are who could mix pace with control and movement. Rabada and Nortje have enough speed to theoretically trouble people on any surface, but the current generation of Indian batsmen are far more used to facing pace now theres some in the domestic game and they arent accurate enough to force wickets.

It must be pretty dispiriting when you finally get a second wicket at 162 and its Kholi coming in alongside the guy who got a double century first dibs in the last test. 

Hard to see how this cant be 2-0 to India. Scrap the toss!

I have often times discussed the relevance of toss here and mooted the idea of giving the choice to the visiting captain.
But the idea or any variation to the toss..... is not even in discussion at the ICC...so hard to see it being implemented.

and if some tea,m does win inspite of the toss in foreign conditions....they do deserve more than the standard even points.

SA has been let down by their spinners in helpful conditions.....which is surprising, given that Maharaaj had a very impressive record even in unhelpful conditions.

The answer lies in "Expectation of being the lead"....is something he is unable to carry.....something we saw of Moeen also...much more successful against India in Eng then he was in India.

Indian juggernaut is rolling on towards another imposing total....and for some weird reason Kohli dropped a batsman for a 3rd seamer.......in these conditions where a second seamer is half too many.

Kohli 200+ and Jadeja on 65* and Ind going at 9 RPO in last 10 over
Declaration coming up anytime now.

Ind is imposing at home......they last lost and drew a test against Aus in 2017 but won the series 2-1
and Eng held Ind on to a draw also in 2017 but lost 4-0....and Ind lost most tosses in those two series.

The team that's capable of beating India in India I think is BD...but Indians are clever.....and they prepare seaming / bouncy pitches for BD...not quite like SA or Eng pitches...BUT.....as seaming and bouncy as you can get in India

Its just embarrassing really. SA look absolutely lost when India get to bat first. The pick three seamers theory has made zero difference. 

I do agree with the comment the other day that India could/should have picked one of their magic ball spinners mind. the only threat to another comfortable win is SA batting long. they can afford to ship a few easy runs, taking wickets is key now. SA have a truely awful batting record against spinners in any conditions in recent years, on a road a leggie/mystery chucker gives the chance of even someone playing what should have been a good defensive stroke getting out to some ridiculous unpredictable movement.

edit

Shout out for Maharaj...closing in on 50 overs and 200 runs conceded now. You got to love a trier. 
Assuming the other spinner is injured?

Gooseberry wrote:

Shout out for Maharaj...closing in on 50 overs and 200 runs conceded now. You got to love a trier. 
Assuming the other spinner is injured?

Don't know about the other spinner but Maharaj is now injured, not a great test for him so far.

SA 33/3 responding to 601/5...they will be prying for Typhoons. 
This is in line for one of the most one sided tests of all time.

Galted wrote:

Gooseberry wrote:

Shout out for Maharaj...closing in on 50 overs and 200 runs conceded now. You got to love a trier. 
Assuming the other spinner is injured?

Don't know about the other spinner but Maharaj is now injured, not a great test for him so far.

Looks like "the other one" came back and bowled a couple of overs after they called mercy on Maharaj at the 50 over mark saving him the ignomy of passing 200 runs conceded in an innings. Piedt was dropped for shipping just 13 more runs than that for the same solo wicket but over two innings. At lest theres little danger for Maharaj of having to bowl a second time.

Kohli has now reached 7,000 Test runs and, at aged 30, should put on some goodly numbers.

He's just edged ahead of Joe Root who should go on to at least 10,000 Test runs and possibly a good few more after that.

Then we have Steve Smith, age 30, who is on the brink of 7,000 Test runs and Kane Williamson, 29, who's a little way back.

It will be interesting to see just who of this quartet will end up with the most Test runs. It's a pity that NZ play comparatively few Tests otherwise a good case could be made for Williamson ending up top of this particular pile.

It's more likely that Smith and Kohli will be battling it out.

Think Smith's currently a pretty clear number one test bat but Khloi will likely score more over his longer career at the top. Roots a good player but not in their class for tests, maybe affected by a shoddy team around him and difficult playing conditions at home but Smith this summer showed hes on a completely different level.


As for the SA test an absolute humiliation in the end. 20 wickets to Indias five and still 137 behind. 12 series wins in a row shows this is one of the best India tests sides ever, but SA are also at a real low point. They just arent in the game if India bat first.
They will be a different prospect at home of course and often the games become low scoring lotteries but England have an opportunity to get another away win unless they suddenly find some new batsmen.

India sets some kinda world record of maximum home series wins in a row...12 now...and I can't see this being cut short yet.
The Irony was that Indian pacers took half of the 20 wickets to fall......Umesh and Shami are as effective as spinners on India pitches with their ability to extract reverse swing.
Saha is by far the cleanest WK in the world right now....
I do not think SA can win even if they win the toss...India needs to play Kuldeep in the next game.

As I see test cricket today....India and NZ are in A Grade, Aus and Eng closely behind in B-Grade, SA has fallen to C grade with Pak, and the rest are in D grade

G'Berry. Fully take your point about Root and the players around him. It's so much easier if you're number four coming in at 120 for two rather than 20 for two.

Comparisons are always difficult and subject to endless argument, but it's worth considering the batting strengths of various teams when trying to work out a pecking order of individual batting greatness.

Smith, for example, made a stack or runs this last summer in English conditions in a weak batting line-up. Surely his 770-odd runs were, in some way, "greater" than, say, Viv Richards' 800-odd amid a top WI line-up in the hot summer of 1976.

Viv was a great player and my comments are not meant to decry him. But another WI great - Lara - could be considered Viv's superior in that for at least part of his career he was playing in a comparatively poor Windies batting line-up.

Also, do we underrate Atherton who averaged "only" 37 but had to fight thru six-Test series against rampant WI and Aus sides in an England team that was quite poor?

Who ever coined the phrase "There are lies, damned lies and statistics" may have been on to something.

KP_fan wrote:
As I see test cricket today....India and NZ are in A Grade, Aus and Eng closely behind in B-Grade, SA has fallen to C grade with Pak, and the rest are in D grade

Not sure about that. Would agree India are A grade and #1, but would like to see them win the NZ series away from home to prove their place as head and shoulders above the rest.  
NZ haven't done that great away from home, so I'd put them in the B category. I'd have Aus, with Smith back, in the A category. They struggled a lot without Smith, but with him back they drew 2-2 in England which is a good result, and were also very competitive in the India away series in 2017 losing 2-1. That showed that Aus can be competitive anywhere in the world which is a massive plus.

I dunno about Head & shoulders...but there is clear big daylight between Ind and others....and small but clear gap between Ind and NZ.

To me Ind and NZ  are a cut above given that they have good top order batting....given that all of top 4 ( on my list) have good bowling attacks...

Smith is running on Adrenalin and some kind of auto system  generated steroids equivalent....but that level is not sustainable.
and Even with Smith in that form Aus overall batting looked average.

We will get to watch closely when first Eng and then Ind tour NZ in their summer of 2019-2020

Australia havent won an away series since 2015, and that was NZ which barely counts. They lost 3-0 in Sri Lanka with Smith and only won 2 out of their last 15 tests in Asia. Taking a one off win in India as evidence that they are competitive all over the world is cherry picking at its finest. 
One decent spinner. No all proper all rounders. 3 batsmen and a keeper short. The stand out quality of Smith and the lead seamers helps paper over the cracks, but its a pretty poor Australian side. 
They only retained the Ashes because England have similar issues with passengers in the side and suffered mid game bowler injuries. 
England have more credentials to claim to be a team capable of playing in any conditions than Aus do, and India have a seam attack that can take advantage of hard fast pitches and English green tops even if their batsmen struggle to adapt.   

India have 3 of the ICC top 10 batsmen, 2 of the top 10 bowlers (and they are leaving the highest rated one out against SA), and two of the top 10 all rounders. Saha has a fair claim to be the tidiest keeper in tests currently. Stacks of quality, no real weak areas. Aus have Cummins and Smith who are absolute top rank stars, but little after that, Starc their only other player to appear in the top 10s. Warner could come good again, and Lambuschange shone in England so theres signs they could be headed in the right direction, but really I cant see how you can have them close to India whos only bad series since 2014 was the trip to England. Theyve won 8 drawn one and lost 1 of their last 10 since that trip, 6 of those games were away. 

Theres a big gulf for me between India and others in tests.

KP_fan wrote:
To me Ind and NZ  are a cut above given that they have good top order batting....given that all of top 4 ( on my list) have good bowling attacks...

I am not sure you can yet give NZ that status as clear number 2.
Their recent test series record is good, but let's analyse closely-
In past 2 years: drew away in SL which is mediocre, but at home they've beaten England, WI, SL, Bangladesh. And beat Pakistan away in UAE which is impressive.
Looking further back: in 2017 they lost at home to SA, in 2016 lost home and away to Aus, also whitewashed away in India.

So their results have been good in past couple of years, but for me it's been a bit home centric and not proven themselves against the toughest opposition yet.
They have a defining few months coming up for them:
Late 2019: 2 Tests vs England at home. Early 2020: 3 tests vs Aus away. 2 Tests vs India at home.
If they can win 2 of those 3 series, and maybe draw the third, I'd say they're serious contenders for WTC. If they beat England but then lose to Aus away and India at home I wouldn't be impressed.

Gooseberry wrote:India have 3 of the ICC top 10 batsmen, 2 of the top 10 bowlers (and they are leaving the highest rated one out against SA), and two of the top 10 all rounders. Saha has a fair claim to be the tidiest keeper in tests currently. Stacks of quality, no real weak areas.

I'm not denying that India are clearly the best team in the world right now. However, I'd hesitate before saying this one of the 'great' Indian teams, or dominant like Aus were in the early 2000s.
At home they're unbeatable, as they have been for most of this century. I believe only one series loss since 2003, which is crazy.
However out of their 3 tough away series, they fought bravely but lost vs SA and Eng, and crushed Aus who were missing Smith and Warner.
Beating WI in 2 out of 2 tests was nice, but a defining series will be away at NZ. Such a shame it's only a 2 match series. My perspective on the greatness of India would change significantly depending on whether they win or lose that. In my opinion if Bumrah is back fit, India are favourites, he is on another level.

KP_fan wrote:Smith is running on Adrenalin and some kind of auto system generated steroids equivalent....but that level is not sustainable.
and Even with Smith in that form Aus overall batting looked average.

Gooseberry wrote:One decent spinner. No all proper all rounders. 3 batsmen and a keeper short. The stand out quality of Smith and the lead seamers helps paper over the cracks, but its a pretty poor Australian side.

I agree Aus are a pretty flawed team. Player for player, much worse than India, and don't have strong back up either.
However, Smith imo will become the greatest batsman of all time, his presence itself gives Aus a fighting chance anywhere in the world. I predict he somehow drag Aus to 2nd in WTC, and thus the final in 2021.

They do indeed have a fair shot at second place , but that's more to do with the paucity if opposition than them being good overall and does rely heavily on Smith and the three quicks to achieve.
The gap between Aus and I diagnosed is still big IMO.

Rohit is a very high quality FTB.....and in the form of his life..
There is no way he will come close to such scoring overseas...BUT......if he can average even 30 in seaming countries.....he would have done OK and he is capable of that ~30ish outside.

Shahbaz Nadeem is strange selection......debuted 15 years back....surfaced as India's top domestic spinner atleast a decade back....and selected atleast 5 years too late....and at a time when Kuldeep is clearly ahead of him in wicket taking skills.

Ranchi, the venue for this test is his home base ....so they could have selected as home boy for the home crowds.....a flimsy reason in my view.

Excellent reward for years and years of hard work & toil in the grind of Ranji for Nadeem though....to get the play test cricket atleast once

This series is completely pointless if SA arent allowed to bowl first and arent given 400 free runs. Another one sided drubbing on the cards. Both teams look to be experimenting a bit which is fair enough given the circumstances but this cant be selling many people on test cricket ( except Rohits agent)

On Rohit being a FTB is fair enough criticism but still it takes a level of discipline to do what he does so well. India are so dominant because they have him to make maximum advantage of batting first. England have really struggled to find players who can make match winning scores on flat decks, Root being a case in point who can score 50s anywhere but (relatively) rarely gets centuries and only a handful of them big ones.

Being a flat track bully at least means he has value in these games. It's better than just being rubbish everywhere.

SA yet again giving away more than half their wickets to Indian seamers....and the pitches and T2 and T3 have had something for seamers...they become raging turners only on D4 and D5

Just been pathetic, listless show from SA.......losing is one thing and not putting up any semblance of fight is another and far more disgraceful.

Something is not right in SA dressing room...and that's to do with their team spirit/ unity and probably FAF's captaincy

crumbs this is turning into a total humiliation... 4 down in the second innings and still 313 behind a declared total!

This series has been too one sided to follow live....it makes a spectacular viewing of the highlights if you are an Indian supporter
what's been astounding is the number of wickets the Indian pacers have taken.....and that even in the absence of Bumrah...and a finer observation how many of SA batsmen have been beaten on the outside edge to be clean bowled of lbw to seam bowling

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/27895367/if-slot-xi-empty-just-wait-your-chance-shahbaz-nadeem
The story of Nadeem.....one of amazing spin riches for India.....and sad for Nadeem that he is 4th in the pecking order....while in many other countries he could have been a lead spinner with a career of 200 wickets at 33 runs apiece sort


And Ind get to 240 points and right on top of test match championship table....and 120 more points coming up against BD in Nov

India are obviously great, but their home tests are too one sided recently. I still feel that we're going through a bit of a weak period of test cricket.
If you compare most teams now to how they were from 2008-2014, there's a clear decline.
South Africa are a shadow of that great team, they had a batting line up with Smith Amla Kallis DeVilliers, class all the way through.
England had Cook and KP, a world class spinner in Swann, won away series vs Aus and Ind in 2011 and 2012.
Australia to be honest were always inconsistent ever since 2008 when their greats started retiring. Probably marginally worse now than 8 years ago, only close because Smith is a genius.

New Zealand are a team who are definitely better than before, but they've played barely any tests away from home, and their home test series are very short. Both England and India touring NZ for only 2 match test series. That's not enough to build a series with any great narrative or twists. Who is to blame? Probably ECB and BCCI.

Perhaps instead of limiting test series to 2 matches, they could stop playing hundreds of pointless bilateral ODI series.
Does anyone remember the results of these series? They're so unmemorable, people probably forget the matches even happened a week after the series is over. Nothing remotely interesting happens all games apart from bowlers getting slogged for 6 of mistimed shots on flat dead pitches. All they're good for is team selection for Champions Trophy and World Cup.

Trouble is 1 extra test match takes up almost the same calendar space as an ODI series.
India have had a long history of playing excessive ODI series, England though play a lot of tests. last year was an oddity with obsessive preparation for the world cup (plus the cup itself) leading to an unheard of number of ODIs. 
This winter they are playing 9 tests...9! And a paltry 6 ODIs, plus 11 T20s which OK is quite a few but takes up as much calendar space as 2 tests, and theres a world cup in July. There are a few pointless ODIs in the summer (notably the Ireland ones) but thats all part of the qualification deal for the next world cup and ensuring that the second rate teams like Australia get a chance to play top sides like England. 

There is an oddity with NZ just getting two tests, but when that fixture comes around again (and bear in mind its less than 2 years since they last played a test series in NZ) as part of the test champs cycle it will have to be a three match series, as will the corresponding home fixture. 
England will have played 10 tests against NZ in 5 years, which is a healthy number. 

In terms of who gets the longer series thats always been audience driven, and convention has been it takes a two way decision on how many of each type of match is played for reciprocity in the return fixture. West Indies used ti be a big draw, and its taken time for those series to get gradually shortened to account for their low standing in world cricket now. New Zealand traditionally have been short changed in tests by England but they have rarely been any good or a big spectator/TV draw. Them being one of the better sides now doesn't really change that, its just not a glamour tie. Im not sure how its panned out that we have ended up having so many tours there in recent years but they certainly haven't been short changed in total numbers compared to say Sri Lanka or Pakistan. 

As for the ODIs not being interesting ... the (pointless bilateral) NZ ODI series after the previous world cup that kicked off the England revolution was pretty breath taking and generated a fair amount of wowzers. 

In a year when England have an entire extra tour shoehorned in to the West Indies (where they went last winter) to satisfy the demands of the ridiculous test championship I'm finding the " we play too many boring bilateral ODIs" argument a bit short of weight.

Fair post GB, agree with most of that.

My main frustration regarding balance of fixtures between Tests/ODI is with BCCI, not ECB. England have always played a decent amount of tests, which I'm grateful for.
I think you're also right that the reason why NZ have only been given 2 home tests vs Eng & Ind is because they aren't glamor ties, which is a shame.

One idea that could spice up test cricket: why don't England offer to host a 5 match test series between India and Pakistan? Would have sell out crowds, huge TV audiences (start at ~4pm IND/Pak time). Before the emergence of Bumrah I'd say Ind vs Pak would be 5050 in English conditions, but now Ind would be firm favourites.

Good to see Ireland qualify for the T20 World Cup.
Would like to have seen Kenya qualify to.

westisbest wrote:Good to see Ireland qualify for the T20 World Cup.
Would like to have seen Kenya qualify to.

Papua New Guinea making the T20 World Cup is excellent though. Not sure on the makeup of their side, or tbh anything about cricket in PNG, just excited to see a new side come through.

Shakib Al Hasan banned for two years.

Soul Requiem wrote:Shakib Al Hasan banned for two years.

One of those is suspended so should be just the one

Tiger ... pretty sure Geriant Jones was from PNG?

Holland qualified also

First ever T20 win for Banglades over India. Not exactly a full strength side but most of the senior bats ( bar kholi) played, and no Dhoni to carry.
Bangladesh also managed to use 8 bowlers which is quite a feat in a 20 over game.
There is life without sakhib!

Pakistan in line to play a "16" year old quick howler against Australia.

The 16 year old who is actually 32

Up and down day at the Gabba...

Pakistan 0/75 then losing four wickets for three runs..., five out for under the hundred , then recovering until they lost another cluster near the end : ultimately might feel they have done well to get 240. If their youthful pace attack can do a "Broad" on Dave Warner they could put Australia under some pressure as I'm not totally convinced by the Aussie batting apart from Smith.
But my gut feeling is the score is at least 80 runs light.

Oh look, Davie is back on a flat track against inferior opposition scoring runs again...

Lead of 72 with 1 wicket down and Smith not even at the crease yet ....Aus maybe just favourites then

Bangladesh bowled out for diddly squat by India

Couple of one sided matches on here.

Warner predictably cashing in back in home conditions. He is a classical FTB - but a very good one. Pakistan probably getting what they deserve for leaving out their best bowler : there is a reason that most countries don't go into Test Matches with the pace attack in the hands of a couple of teenagers... Burns has cemented his place for now even though the Australian selectors do not seem to love him. God knows what Smith will do when he gets in ! If he gets in ...

Unfortunately it has rendered the rest of this match a bit of an inevitable "not if , but when". Not very exciting. Perhaps the next match will be more interesting

Not a debut that Naseem Shah will be telling his grandchildren about. Insert your own joke about him probably having some already here.

The Master Virat Kohli goes to his 27th Test hundred - he's reached there in the same amount of innings as Tendulkar. Decent company