Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[vella85]

Well times change in test match cricket and now its mainly dominated by England, Australia, New Zealand and India where as back in the 80's and 90's it was a mix of teams and even though some of the lower ranked teams were not as good as the top teams they at least gave the top teams a challenge but now days there seems to be a huge gap between the top teams and lower ranked teams which is why we are seeing these one sided matches.

[JSRAW]

Well times change in test match cricket and now its mainly dominated by England, Australia, New Zealand and India where as back in the 80's and 90's it was a mix of teams and even though some of the lower ranked teams were not as good as the top teams they at least gave the top teams a challenge but now days there seems to be a huge gap between the top teams and lower ranked teams which is why we are seeing these one sided matches.

Some team goes through smooth transitions some fails. SA,SL,PAK,WI all failed to find replacement to their legendary players. Ofcourse they do have 1-2 classic players but they can't drag the team alone all by themselves. On the other hand Big 3 and Kiwis did okay job so they looks in better situation, although they also have their fair share of problems.

[mersal]

Kiwis and Proteas are literally bullying Pakistan and Sri Lanka respectively.
And look at that home track bully Kane Williamson (JK) lol, scoring double tons for fun nowadays

Not a good sign for test cricket. Even test matches involving teams outside the big 3 are getting lop-sided now. South Africa literally destroyed Sri Lanka. But this same South Africa will lose by a big margin, if they play against any of the big 3 teams. I am gradually losing my interest in test cricket. What is the point in watching such one sided matches? Only the matches involving big 3 teams are interesting nowadays.

Those two team failed to produce good quality players in the last few years that is the reason why these teams are struggling now but its all part of their cricket journey. Soon these teams will find someone who can lift the confidence among the other players and that is why lot of domestic leagues were conducted all around the world.

I think Pakistan is still fine they just are not able to get a stable team but talking about Sri Lanka their future is absolutely disastorous. The problem with Sri Lanka is that there are no senior players in the team to guide the junior guys who are coming in. All the big guns vanished from the team all of a sudden. I think the 2011 World Cup Sri Lankan team was the last best team from Sri Lanka after the retirement of Sanga, Jayawardane, Murali and Dilshan the team can't even be compared to our India-A team. They have a pretty dark future lying ahead of them I feel soon Afghanistan(if they can part ways with terrorism and such conflicts) would become a better cricketing nation than Sri Lanka.

Lot of political issues are also one of the main reason why they can't be able to find the talented players. I will never agree with the smaller population means less talented people because talented people were refused to given chance for various reasons which is also exist in most of the cricket boards.

World cup team in 2011 was the best team for Sri Lanka and after that as well they had some good players still Sri Lankan cricket board dropped some of them after few failures.

[Sithara007]

Pakistan getting completely destroyed by Kyle Jamieson at Christchurch. They are trailing by 223 runs, with just three more wickets in hand. Another innings defeat looks very likely. Jamieson has so far taken 10 wickets in this test match, and his test bowling average now stands at an unbelievable 13.34 (35 wickets from 6 matches). And remember that Pakistan is in such a horrible position, although New Zealand is missing key bowlers such as Neil Wagner and Lockie Ferguson.

[pakhitheboss]

Kiwis and Proteas are literally bullying Pakistan and Sri Lanka respectively.
And look at that home track bully Kane Williamson (JK) lol, scoring double tons for fun nowadays

Not a good sign for test cricket. Even test matches involving teams outside the big 3 are getting lop-sided now. South Africa literally destroyed Sri Lanka. But this same South Africa will lose by a big margin, if they play against any of the big 3 teams. I am gradually losing my interest in test cricket. What is the point in watching such one sided matches? Only the matches involving big 3 teams are interesting nowadays.

Those two team failed to produce good quality players in the last few years that is the reason why these teams are struggling now but its all part of their cricket journey. Soon these teams will find someone who can lift the confidence among the other players and that is why lot of domestic leagues were conducted all around the world.

I think Pakistan is still fine they just are not able to get a stable team but talking about Sri Lanka their future is absolutely disastorous. The problem with Sri Lanka is that there are no senior players in the team to guide the junior guys who are coming in. All the big guns vanished from the team all of a sudden. I think the 2011 World Cup Sri Lankan team was the last best team from Sri Lanka after the retirement of Sanga, Jayawardane, Murali and Dilshan the team can't even be compared to our India-A team. They have a pretty dark future lying ahead of them I feel soon Afghanistan(if they can part ways with terrorism and such conflicts) would become a better cricketing nation than Sri Lanka.

Lot of political issues are also one of the main reason why they can't be able to find the talented players. I will never agree with the smaller population means less talented people because talented people were refused to given chance for various reasons which is also exist in most of the cricket boards.

World cup team in 2011 was the best team for Sri Lanka and after that as well they had some good players still Sri Lankan cricket board dropped some of them after few failures.

Every board has political issue, In my opinion corruption is one of the main reason and second is interference from the political leaders. The core system of selection needs to be changed, following the big boards model won't help them finding local talent.

[Swordsoffreedom]

My guess was that if Pakistan could not take any of NZ's wickets in the first session of the third day, then Pakistan would lose the match by an innings. And I told it before. What I thought happened. Pakistan lost not only by an innings, but they also lost by a huge margin of innings and 176 runs. This is their fourth defeat in terms of innings and huge runs. Their biggest defeat was against England, that was an inning and 225 runs.

[Sithara007]

My guess was that if Pakistan could not take any of NZ's wickets in the first session of the third day, then Pakistan would lose the match by an innings. And I told it before. What I thought happened. Pakistan lost not only by an innings, but they also lost by a huge margin of innings and 176 runs. This is their fourth defeat in terms of innings and huge runs. Their biggest defeat was against England, that was an inning and 225 runs.

Pakistan has performed very poorly in the recent times while playing outside the subcontinent, so this defeat wasn't much of a surprise. It just confirms the elevation of New Zealand as one of the cricket superpowers. If any of the skeptics were still doubtful about New Zealand, even after they managed to finish as the runner ups during the 2019 World Cup, they will be silent now. It is no longer big3, but big 4 (big 3+ NZ).

[UmerIdrees]

Pakistan getting completely destroyed by Kyle Jamieson at Christchurch. They are trailing by 223 runs, with just three more wickets in hand. Another innings defeat looks very likely. Jamieson has so far taken 10 wickets in this test match, and his test bowling average now stands at an unbelievable 13.34 (35 wickets from 6 matches). And remember that Pakistan is in such a horrible position, although New Zealand is missing key bowlers such as Neil Wagner and Lockie Ferguson.

Well, there is a lot of politics in recent time in the team and i was not expecting much from them. Any win would have been a miracle for them which did not happen.

Pakistan has performed very poorly in the recent times while playing outside the subcontinent, so this defeat wasn't much of a surprise. It just confirms the elevation of New Zealand as one of the cricket superpowers. If any of the skeptics were still doubtful about New Zealand, even after they managed to finish as the runner ups during the 2019 World Cup, they will be silent now. It is no longer big3, but big 4 (big 3+ NZ).

"Big 3" title is never given on the basis of performance. 

[bryant.coleman]

"Big 3" title is never given on the basis of performance. 

I guess the term "Big 3" first came in to picture a decade or so ago, when the heads of BCCI/ECB/CA (N Srinivasan/Giles Clarke/Wally Edwards) formed a cartel to monopolize cricketing revenues. It had nothing to do with the actual performance on the ground, but more to do with the money power. But performance in the long term is also related to the financials, we are now finding out. Smaller boards such as SLCB and PCB got a smaller share of revenue and as a result their cricketing infrastructure deteriorated. And in the long term, their performance also went down.

[mersal]

My guess was that if Pakistan could not take any of NZ's wickets in the first session of the third day, then Pakistan would lose the match by an innings. And I told it before. What I thought happened. Pakistan lost not only by an innings, but they also lost by a huge margin of innings and 176 runs. This is their fourth defeat in terms of innings and huge runs. Their biggest defeat was against England, that was an inning and 225 runs.

In the last 2 or 3 years, pakistan was on the losing side by biggest margin, saw some tweet yesterday which said pakistan was the opponent when team scored highest run in an innings on a test match. Is it actually true?

[SATWAT]

My guess was that if Pakistan could not take any of NZ's wickets in the first session of the third day, then Pakistan would lose the match by an innings. And I told it before. What I thought happened. Pakistan lost not only by an innings, but they also lost by a huge margin of innings and 176 runs. This is their fourth defeat in terms of innings and huge runs. Their biggest defeat was against England, that was an inning and 225 runs.

In the last 2 or 3 years, pakistan was on the losing side by biggest margin, saw some tweet yesterday which said pakistan was the opponent when team scored highest run in an innings on a test match. Is it actually true?

Pakistan's history is good with sports but current and future is not good enough because now all things not going on any planning or merit just politics and biased things happening which are killing beauty of game in last 3 years Pakistan dropping badly in ranking and in quality but no one doing any positive thing so they will go more down.

[JSRAW]

Saini is the new debutant on the list.

After 1st game everyone thought that it would be one sided series for obvious reason but Indians did fight back beautifully and now we can expect same from Aussie.

[Yudhisthir]

India teams do have a good pool of youngsters who could perform anytime given an opportunity. It's really good to see the team transforming gradually. Indian team has been the most consistence on any transformations. The strategy for different format of plays would be different and hence some specialty players but I'd love them to be given a chance on every formats.

[JSRAW]

Its getting spicy and New Zealand is in very comfortable situation as one of their away series against Bangladesh is cancelled. Bangladesh is no pushover in their own backyard so its good for Kiwis.

England seems out of the competition as they need almost every game or at least 3-0 against India, very unlikely even in dreams and 2-0 against Sri Lanka, its possible because Sri lankan team is in really bad shape.

Australia need to win last 2 games against India if they want to keep up as their last series is in South Africa. They do have excellent record there but i doubt if they could clean sweep Proteas.

India need at least 4 wins out of 6 remaining games. Tough task, although India is fav against England due to home condition but English team is serious competitor and they are providing enough rest to their main players (Stokes, Archer, they are not playing in SL) just for Indian tour and 4-0 seems tough task to ask from the Indians despite their good record in home condition.

Grab your popcorns..

[onrise]

My guess was that if Pakistan could not take any of NZ's wickets in the first session of the third day, then Pakistan would lose the match by an innings. And I told it before. What I thought happened. Pakistan lost not only by an innings, but they also lost by a huge margin of innings and 176 runs. This is their fourth defeat in terms of innings and huge runs. Their biggest defeat was against England, that was an inning and 225 runs.

This is a big defeat as by innings and 175 runs are huge in any given test match. What is more disappointing to watch is that Pakistan could not even end up making 200 runs or fell short by 100 runs from their own first innings. This just shows that they were not competent in the match and could even match their first innings total and when chasing a big trail you require somebody form the team to stay on the pitch for long hours and build innings. But did not find any batsman was in mood for a long innings and just gave up easily other than Azhar Ali who batted well in both innings.

[eaLiTy]

I guess the term "Big 3" first came in to picture a decade or so ago, when the heads of BCCI/ECB/CA (N Srinivasan/Giles Clarke/Wally Edwards) formed a cartel to monopolize cricketing revenues. It had nothing to do with the actual performance on the ground, but more to do with the money power.

You need to accept the fact that BCCI generate more money than any other board and hence they are elevated alongside ECB and CA , ECB was having complete control over ICC for a long time and then CA was able to become the power house because of their history during the formation and the biggest looser is South Africa who took the initiative in the beginning to form and unified body and they generate the most income after India.

What i am trying to tell is, CA and ECB has some power irrespective of the money they generate compared to the other cricket boards .

Saini is the new debutant on the list.

So Saini is making his debut and Rohit Sharma is back in the team. KL Rahul is out of the series with an injury and what happens if there is any other injury.

[teosanru]

Kiwis and Proteas are literally bullying Pakistan and Sri Lanka respectively.
And look at that home track bully Kane Williamson (JK) lol, scoring double tons for fun nowadays

Not a good sign for test cricket. Even test matches involving teams outside the big 3 are getting lop-sided now. South Africa literally destroyed Sri Lanka. But this same South Africa will lose by a big margin, if they play against any of the big 3 teams. I am gradually losing my interest in test cricket. What is the point in watching such one sided matches? Only the matches involving big 3 teams are interesting nowadays.

Those two team failed to produce good quality players in the last few years that is the reason why these teams are struggling now but its all part of their cricket journey. Soon these teams will find someone who can lift the confidence among the other players and that is why lot of domestic leagues were conducted all around the world.

I think Pakistan is still fine they just are not able to get a stable team but talking about Sri Lanka their future is absolutely disastorous. The problem with Sri Lanka is that there are no senior players in the team to guide the junior guys who are coming in. All the big guns vanished from the team all of a sudden. I think the 2011 World Cup Sri Lankan team was the last best team from Sri Lanka after the retirement of Sanga, Jayawardane, Murali and Dilshan the team can't even be compared to our India-A team. They have a pretty dark future lying ahead of them I feel soon Afghanistan(if they can part ways with terrorism and such conflicts) would become a better cricketing nation than Sri Lanka.

Lot of political issues are also one of the main reason why they can't be able to find the talented players. I will never agree with the smaller population means less talented people because talented people were refused to given chance for various reasons which is also exist in most of the cricket boards.

World cup team in 2011 was the best team for Sri Lanka and after that as well they had some good players still Sri Lankan cricket board dropped some of them after few failures.

We have the best footballers in Each and every street of Europe. It's not really about the population it's about how well the country publicizes sports in their country and how much they support their players. Moreover I have seen commercialization of sports also yields better players as money is the biggest motivating factor for everyone. I think the leagues around the world are the reason why West Indies and Bangladesh are getting good players too.

[Swordsoffreedom]

My guess was that if Pakistan could not take any of NZ's wickets in the first session of the third day, then Pakistan would lose the match by an innings. And I told it before. What I thought happened. Pakistan lost not only by an innings, but they also lost by a huge margin of innings and 176 runs. This is their fourth defeat in terms of innings and huge runs. Their biggest defeat was against England, that was an inning and 225 runs.

Pakistan has performed very poorly in the recent times while playing outside the subcontinent, so this defeat wasn't much of a surprise. It just confirms the elevation of New Zealand as one of the cricket superpowers. If any of the skeptics were still doubtful about New Zealand, even after they managed to finish as the runner ups during the 2019 World Cup, they will be silent now. It is no longer big3, but big 4 (big 3+ NZ).

New Zealand is improving a lot in cricket. They are learning from their past mistakes and correcting them. I am especially fascinated by watching their Test matches. They are very strong now in the test format. They have the ability to compete competitively against any team in the Big 3.

[UmerIdrees]

My guess was that if Pakistan could not take any of NZ's wickets in the first session of the third day, then Pakistan would lose the match by an innings. And I told it before. What I thought happened. Pakistan lost not only by an innings, but they also lost by a huge margin of innings and 176 runs. This is their fourth defeat in terms of innings and huge runs. Their biggest defeat was against England, that was an inning and 225 runs.

In the last 2 or 3 years, pakistan was on the losing side by biggest margin, saw some tweet yesterday which said pakistan was the opponent when team scored highest run in an innings on a test match. Is it actually true?

Pakistan's history is good with sports but current and future is not good enough because now all things not going on any planning or merit just politics and biased things happening which are killing beauty of game in last 3 years Pakistan dropping badly in ranking and in quality but no one doing any positive thing so they will go more down.

Wait, I agree that Pakistani sports history was good one but currently our team is facing a lot of issues probably don't have some good experienced persons in the cricket team but how you can say that future is not good. They will learn from their mistakes and will come out to be a better team. As always, they always are a threating team to all the countries  when it comes to world Cup and all big tournaments.

[bryant.coleman]

New Zealand is improving a lot in cricket. They are learning from their past mistakes and correcting them. I am especially fascinated by watching their Test matches. They are very strong now in the test format. They have the ability to compete competitively against any team in the Big 3.

They have a very strong team, with world class batsmen such as Kane Williamson and excellent pace bowling lineup including Trent Boult, Kyle Jamieson, Lockie Ferguson, Tim Southee.etc. They have also benefited from South African players moving in to NZ (especially Neil Wagner, BJ Watling, Devon Conway.etc). I would rather say that NZ is one of the strongest teams in test cricket.