Time to admit NZ is a darn good team and a difficult match-up for us

[Gollum]

Such an annoying team. 

[The Dark Horse]

58 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Such an annoying team. 

Such an annoying captain...you know who 

[sergio04]

Time to admit we overhype our team.

[SK_IH]

2 hours ago, Gollum said:

Such an annoying team. 

Not easy to beat NZ in NZ. But having said that, this Indian team should be stripped off their numero uno status if they fail to even draw this series. 

[Cricwala]

3 minutes ago, sergio04 said:

Time to admit we overhype our team.

"We" as in the country, not fans who understand the game and can cut through the bluster and hype. We know exactly where we stand - a talented team who are dominant in home tests but still not top level overseas, lacking on toughness and tactics. Among top 3 in LOIs, but far from dominant. In all, much scope for improvement in a game played seriously by arnd 10 countries in world, that we should be dominating given our demographic and financial advantages

[Gollum]

47 minutes ago, SK_IH said:

Not easy to beat NZ in NZ. But having said that, this Indian team should be stripped off their numero uno status if they fail to even draw this series. 

Why should we be stripped off our top spot? Which other team deserves it more? Ranking system is fine the way it is.

[SK_IH]

1 minute ago, Gollum said:

Why should we be stripped off our top spot? Which other team deserves it more? Ranking system is fine the way it is.

Let it be decided by the winner of that gimmick WTC.  And about deserving team, India will not be in the top of my list if this series ends in a failure. Can't win in SA, Eng or NZ aur bakchodi no.1 ki 

About that Aus win, true aukaat will be shown later this year.

[Gollum]

2 minutes ago, SK_IH said:

Let it be decided by the winner of that gimmick WTC.  And about deserving team, India will not be in the top of my list if this series ends in a failure. Can't win in SA, Eng or NZ aur bakchodi no.1 ki 

About that Aus win, true aukaat will be shown later this year.

Eng is our main hurdle. See we aren't like ATG WI/Aus but better than the rest right now. Can't negate our hard work towards maintaining the top spot since 2016. We can still win odd tests in SENA, compete in majority matches, can't say the same about them. 

[ShoonyaSifar]

1 hour ago, sergio04 said:

Time to admit we overhype our team.

Not we. Many here have known this team will struggle in SENA. If beating the crap out of WI, SL, BD is the benchmark for Kohli-Shastri to feel like an ATG team, well reality couldn’t have been starker.

[SK_IH]

7 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Eng is our main hurdle. See we aren't like ATG WI/Aus but better than the rest right now. Can't negate our hard work towards maintaining the top spot since 2016. We can still win odd tests in SENA, compete in majority matches, can't say the same about them. 

Bad among worst lol? Sorry but that's no definition of no 1. 

[raki05]

Wow after all this investment in cricket.....captain and even c contracted players eenjoing Kings life all we are happy with odd victory in SENa and no 1 farce. Chilly bhar paani me dub marna chahiey even sl won 2-0 against sa in SA withe such mediocre team.

[zen]

4 minutes ago, raki05 said:

Wow after all this investment in cricket.....captain and even c contracted players eenjoing Kings life all we are happy with odd victory in SENa and no 1 farce. Chilly bhar paani me dub marna chahiey even sl won 2-0 against sa in SA withe such mediocre team.

SL won coz of players with X factor! 

[raki05]

10 minutes ago, zen said:

SL won coz of players with X factor! 

What about our super V and his super midget Sena.

[Stan AF]

Truth is we're a very ordinary team in SENA and we don't play well as a team.

[Suhaan]

Truth is we have never been this poor in SENA before Kohli

Probably Dhoni 2011-12 stooped to epic low but that was more due to an ageing core

[Cricwala]

1 hour ago, Gollum said:

Eng is our main hurdle. See we aren't like ATG WI/Aus but better than the rest right now. Can't negate our hard work towards maintaining the top spot since 2016. We can still win odd tests in SENA, compete in majority matches, can't say the same about them. 

australia compete everywhere...they ran us very close in 2017.

[Gollum]

6 minutes ago, Cricwala said:

australia compete everywhere...they ran us very close in 2017.

Cos we weren't at full strength, many players were carrying injury.

 

Aus got blanked 0-3 in Lanka lol

Have been getting crushed in UAE for a while

Drew in BD

 

Hence much worse in Asia, moreover Asian teams are right now weaker than SENA ones.

 

Lost 1-3 in RSA

Drew in Eng

Lost at home to RSA in 2016 and then to us

 

I don't see how they deserve to be ranked above us. India remains #1 because it is a monster side in SC/WI and can compete in SENA. Every time we won toss in SENA we went on to dominate. 

[Cricwala]

11 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Cos we weren't at full strength, many players were carrying injury.

only Rohit Sharma was injured, who else? Not denying that we deserve No. 1 right now, but this is not a dominant reign at top, forget ATG WI/Aus sides, we aren't even at level of Saffers under Cronje/Smith. Just look at SAF record from 2006 - 14 (8 years) and just 2 series losses at home against Aus, and even in that period they defeated Aus in Aus twice. 

 

If we had achieved this, our hype machine would hv anointed us as king of ATGs!  

 

[Gollum]

14 minutes ago, Cricwala said:

only Rohit Sharma was injured, who else?

Shami, Vijay

 

Ash, Jaddu, Rahul, Ishant played with injury, check how many players missed IPL that year. 

Quote

Not denying that we deserve No. 1 right now, but this is not a dominant reign at top, forget ATG WI/Aus sides, we aren't even at level of Saffers under Cronje/Smith. Just look at SAF record from 2006 - 14 (8 years) and just 2 series losses at home against Aus, and even in that period they defeated Aus in Aus twice. 

 

If we had achieved this, our hype machine would hv anointed us as king of ATGs!  

 

RSA wasn't ruthless at home. But yeah great side, since the 70s this is how I would rate the #1 sides

 

ATG WI

ATG Aus

RSA under Smith

Ind post 2016....invincible at home, GOAT status will get confirmed even by our harshest critics after next home cycle

2007-10 Ind...crushed in Lanka, unforgivable...not dominant at home

Eng 2011-12

Aus of early to mid-70s (not all-conditions)

 

If we do well in this away cycle we can move past RSA, top two very difficult at least for another 5 years. 

Edited February 22, 2020 by Gollum

[Real McCoy]

They are a good team but they have very small number of talent pool so they can't expect a superstar to rise from the ranks. Ian Smith yesterday was pointing to how they pick a player based on their character rather than their skills. A good team is based on each individuals characters and will contribute towards team building. This team will always be bigger than the sum of the individuals in the team. However, they are still not favorites compared to the big teams. They are only competitive because India threw their wickets away playing loose strokes rather than dig in and contribute towards a good 1st innings total. This is still a batting wicket as we will see in the 2nd innings. We should finish the NZ innings quickly tomorrow and bat better in the second innings to have a chance. Otherwise we will be looking down the barrel.