Where Do The Other Teams Stand?

Since the day South Africa beat Australia at Perth, chasing a total that went into the record books for the second highest run chase in tests, and more so after recently South Africa beat them once again in the second test to win the three match test series, all cricket bloggers have been writing posts citing the end of Aussie dominance. Yes ! This is true to a very great extent. And their recent 2-0 series loss to India in the Border-Gavaskar trophy need not be mentioned separately either. However, casting our eyes upon other teams as well would certainly give us a better idea as to who fare and how. Yes or No?

The recent test scorers off late have been of course India and South Africa undisputedly. And what about the other seven teams out there? Of course regarding teams like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, it is a gone case. Then on the table there are the West Indians and New Zealanders at position eight and seven respectively. While the West Indies team have a beautiful track record of losing since a decade or so, New Zealand have joined them surprisingly of late. Keep aside their loss to Australia recently when they toured the same. For, some things can never be expected. And team India's run in tests outside home is still in a balance.

This conclusion not being drawn only owing to their test series loss to Sri Lanka in August earlier last year, but also due to the fact that they have hardly toured any nation down under. With the tour of Pakistan out of the list, the next test to watch would be against the Kiwis, when they will be touring the same in March. Still, that tour even if India wins, would not be satisfactory, given the New Zealand's poor run. And one more unnoticed aspect being that India haven't been able to grab any opposition completely. Only series wins and not whitewashes have been where India have restricted themselves to.

India beat the Aussies 2-0 out of 4 matches, a 1-0 win against England in 2 match test series, 1-1 against the Proteas and a 1-0 series win over Pakistan in December 2007. While, for South Africa it has been a 2-0 win over NZ in NZ last December, a 2-1 against Pakistan in Pakistan in October 2007, 2-1 win against in the 4 match test series against England and 2-0 against Aussies in the 2 games that have been played so far. Keeping these stats in mind, one can come to conclusions. Next team is England, who have series loss to South Africa, Sri Lanka (last December) and India of late, and wins against only New Zealand in the Nat West series. If not for the series win against India, Sri Lanka have nothing at stake, after their recent performance against Bangladesh. And last but not the least we have Pakistan, who have enjoyed more than anyone else with their wives & kids for the past one year.

Keeping these facts about other teams in mind, Australia have nothing to fear about despite their poor run in cricket. It was a misfortune that Australia faced the two teams that were of really some concern for them. Anyway, the Ashes are bound to remain in Australia this year too. This if Australia don't make 2005 once again.Bye..