We have seen some really strong teams dominating the cricket world. Till the early 90s we say West Indies being the most feared team. They were followed by Australia and they purely dominated all forms of cricket for more than a decade. Recently we saw the emergence of India as a dominating cricket team for almost two years in test cricket and then they clinched the ODI world cup of 2011.
But the recent scenario in cricket has changed a lot. We may have teams who are sitting at the top of ICC ODI and TEST rankings but are they worth being called the best teams? To be honest they aren't. Just look at the recent results. New Zealand leveled the test series in Australia. India suffered a whitewash in England and Australia. Srilanka defeated South Africa in a test match in South Africa. England was defeated by Pakistan 3-0 in a test series recently. In short if we analyse none of the teams deserve to be called the best. But this doesn't make the game boring. On the contrary if none of the teams are 'the best', the game remains unpredictable thus making it more interesting. We don't see one sided affairs as every team are competitive enough to grab a win.
Let us analyse the touring teams. For the sake of our convenience let us divide the analysis into two viz. Subcontinent teams India, Pakistan and Srilanka; and other three teams South Africa, Australia and England. Let us consider the performances after 2005 and we would realise that problems of overseas test cricket is faced by all the teams.
India, Srilanka and Pakistan in combine have played 49 test matches in Australia, England and South Africa. They have won 9 and lost 32! The win loss ratio comes out to 0.28!
On the other hand Australia, England and South Africa have played a total 34 test matches in the subcontinent and UAE. They have managed to win only 5 and they lost 16. Win loss ratio almost similar and it comes out to 0.31!
If we consider the individual team performances, following are the stats for subcontinent teams when they play overseas test matches:-
Srilanka has a win loss ratio of 0.33 followed by India with 0.30 and then Pakistan with 0.23!
On the other hand if we consider the teams other way round, South Africa is impressive with a win loss ratio of 0.75, Australia with 0.25 and England with 0.12!
Hope this makes an interesting analysis to imply that most of the leading teams aren't good performers when they travel overseas. So for the time being its of no use to debate on who is the best test team. Because fact is none of these teams qualify to be called the best and as mentioned earlier, this makes the cricket nowadays more and more interesting and competitive.
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