SA or India : The Real Challengers To Australia`s Throne.

[shravi]

Warne, Murali, Vettori, Kaneria are just a few names that come to mind over recent years. Basically just England, South Africa and West Indies

They may have those spinners but they did not experience much success in India, here is a breakdown of those players' career averages comapred with their averages against India, in India. The first number is their career average while their second average is against India, in India. This is only in test matches.

Shane Warne- 25.41; 43.11
Muttiah Muralitharan- 21.96; 39.58
Daniel Vettori- 33.09; 51.52
Danish Kaneria- 33.90; 39.58

Danish Kaneria is the only one out of those spinners who has experienced any sort of success. To boot, this is only success on his own scale, not the overall scale used for all bowlers.

Now compare that with Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh's figures in India. Once again, overall stats coming first and only in India stats (vs all teams) coming second.

Anil Kumble- 29.65; 24.88
Harbhajan Singh- 30.88; 26.77

Not only are their averages better than the rest of the aforementioned bowlers, it is actually an improvement on their career average.

All of this leads us to believe that the opposition teams have the spinners to do well, they just do not exploit the spinner-friendly conditions as well as they could, or should.

 

[aussie_ben91]

Australian pitches are more batting friendly than that in India. Batsman can still score runs on 5th day in Australia while in India after 2 days batsman find it hard to play. Its just myth that India has pure batting pitches. Its just that opposition dont have spinners to exploit Indian conditions which dont allow free flowing batting.

Are you serious? I bet they're allot more batsman that average over 50 in first-class cricket in Indian Cricket then Australian cricket. I've seen Indian batsman finish their careers with averages in the high 50's and mid 60's.

Pitches in Australia are very difficult for Opening Batsman and number 3 batsman as the ball is usually swinging and seaming around but after the first session it tends to flatten out.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

To be fair, Gayle would have to be a mighty good player of spin to be a successful opener in India. Spinners sometimes bowl with the new ball there, and even if getting past the new ball was easy, he'd have to face quality spinners right away, something that doesn't happen anywhere else in the world barring Bangladesh and maybe Pakistan. So in Aus facing the new ball is tough, but there isn't much after it. It's the opposite in India...

 

[m_vaughan]

Its South Africa for sure now. Beaten Australia in Australia.

 

[Precambrian]

South Africa easily. They have managed to not lose in India and now have beat Australia in Australia. India has to win a series in Australia and South Africa to lay any claims to be No.1

 

[mattfb]

India won't be number 1 because Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman will be all gone anytime soon and thats there fabulous 4 gone.

 

[shravi]

India won't be number 1 because Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman will be all gone anytime soon and thats there fabulous 4 gone.

Copy paste from the other thread.

Subramaniam Badrinath, Manoj Tiwary, Suresh Raina, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ravi Teja, Abhinav Mukund, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Uday Kaul, Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma, Tanmay Srivatsava, Robin Uthappa.

To name a few . Nice try, but we're covered.

 

[Chetan0304]

India won't be number 1 because Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman will be all gone anytime soon and thats there fabulous 4 gone.

Fab 4 will retire soon but we have many young players who are much capable of beating Australia in all form of Cricket and our young players means at the age from 18-19-20-23 and not from 30's onwards

 

[aussie1st]

It's not so much the depth rather if they step up. I too could list a number of bowlers and batters that can come in for our older players but will they step up is another question. Plus expecting to replace one of the greatest batsmen ever in Tendulkar, two of the best batsmen of our time in Dravid and Laxman will be a very difficult ask. We are finding that out now with trying to replace Gilly, Langer, McGrath and Warne.

 

[stereotype]

Copy paste from the other thread.

Subramaniam Badrinath, Manoj Tiwary, Suresh Raina, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ravi Teja, Abhinav Mukund, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Uday Kaul, Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma, Tanmay Srivatsava, Robin Uthappa.

To name a few . Nice try, but we're covered.

They need to prove themselves at test level and are they going to be as good as someone like Tendulkar or Dravid who are arguably their best ever?

 

[shravi]

They need to prove themselves at test level and are they going to be as good as someone like Tendulkar or Dravid who are arguably their best ever?

Talk to me in a few years. I assure you they will prove themselves.

 

[jordox]

India seem to have a stronger,more glamorous batting lineup while SA have the more restrained conservative and steady lineup.
Gambhir v McKenzie
Sehwag v Smith
Dravid v Amla
Sachin v Kallis
Laxman v Duminy/Prince
Yuvraj v De Villiers
Dhoni v Boucher

Wait wait wait..

Since when did this become the way of determining the better team? That stupid little list means nothing. Why? Because cricket doesn't work like that. Why the hell are people comparing openers? Last time I checked Gambhir and Mckenzie aren't going head to head... Gambhir and Steyn are. Doing these things are never accurate, but if you want to be slightly more accurate, measure it with people who actually are "vs" each other.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Steyn = Viru (Steyn can get him out early, but if Viru hangs in, he'll tear everyone apart)
Ntini = Gambhir
Harris/Morkel/Kallis < India's Middle Order (Barring Dravid, and they are = Yuvi since he is hit and miss)

Zaheer = Smith
Ishant = Mckenzie (I want to favour Ishant, but Mckenzie has a lot of experience)
Harbhajan/Mishra/Sehwag < RSA Middle order

Tough one. As you can see, I'm not very good at these things

 

[Neo95]

Copy paste from the other thread.

Subramaniam Badrinath, Manoj Tiwary, Suresh Raina, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ravi Teja, Abhinav Mukund, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Uday Kaul, Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma, Tanmay Srivatsava, Robin Uthappa.

To name a few . Nice try, but we're covered.

These guys are good against pace bowling too.
We can replace Laxman and Dravid but not Tendulkar

 

[Mr.Cricket]

I think India still gotta win a series in Australia and South Africa if they want to be known as the best team in the world.