Pujara is the most under-appreciated player in the world right now.Many Australian fans probably won’t realise this but he’s been the biggest thorn for them in Tests this decade.Yep it’s no Williamson or Kohli or Faf or Steyn but Pujara.He singlehandedly cost Australia the BG trophy in India(2017) with his 2 back to back clutch performance at the critical stages(2nd and 3rd Test).

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/8525/scorecard/1062574/india-vs-australia-2nd-test-ind-v-aus-2016-17

His 92 in 2nd Test came at the time when almost 40% of the series was over and India had lost arguably all sessions at that point.That 92 completely changed the complexion of that series.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/8525/scorecard/1062575/india-vs-australia-3rd-test-ind-v-aus-2016-17
He once again saved India from trouble and Infact put India in position where they could’ve actually won as India were firm favourites to win that test going into 5th day of 3rd Test.

His average in that series actually didn’t do justice to his performance.Trust me those knocks at home series were worth as much(if not more) than lots of the quality knocks away from home.

Apart from that series,He also scored 419 runs @84 when Australia were Whitewashed 4-0 in India 2013 and he scored lots of runs on turning pitches.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/8525/scorecard/598813/india-vs-australia-2nd-test-australia-tour-of-india-2012-13

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/12214/scorecard/598815/india-vs-australia-4th-test-australia-tour-of-india-2012-13

His counterattacking 82*(92) in 4th Test is arguably the best display of batting against Off spin that you could ever see.He played that knock on the 4th day of that Kotla rank turner pitch where ball started turning a lot from 1st day.

And now his 123 could be matchwinning knock in Australia if Indian bowler delivers.

He gets lots of flak for his average outside subcontinent which I know is far from great.But ranking all batsmen based on overseas average or for Asian batsmen it is average outside subcontinent (ie SA,NZ,AUS and ENG),doesn’t always reveal true picture of their performance.Otherwise in year 2017,Rahane(India’s 3rd best batsmen at that time)should’ve been rated as the 2nd best batsmen in the world after smith as his combined average in SA,AUS,NZ and ENG was 48.6 with over 1000 runs.

Even I’m not sure tbh.Steyn is back in form but I would like to see him play all 3 match series against Pakistan and prove his fitness.Test cricket needs Steyn back.Like you mentioned, South Africa probably deserves to be rated as best bowling attack.Australia is close second. In terms of variety though,I think Australia is best.

Lyon – Complete Spinner who can do well in subcontinent and non-subcontinent pitches.
Hazlewood – Mcgrath 2.0
Cummins – Can be lethal even on dead pitches
Starc – Left arm quick which not many teams have.

I am looking forward to see Aussie quicks in action after a long time.Potentially I feel Aussie bowling lineup is the best in the world(3 quicks + Lyon) but they’ve been slightly underwhelming with their performance “as a unit”.There is reason why Australia is 5th in rankings and blame shouldn’t only be given to batsmen.I am not saying Australian bowlers have been ordinary(far from it) but only that they can still do better.

As of now,Kohli is comfortably the 3rd greatest ODI batsmen ever which is not bad for a 30 yr old.

In T20Is(talking about international T20s only),he is already GOAT as he has won the Man of the series title twice in last 2 T20 World Cups and averages almost 50 with a healthy strike rate.

In Tests,he has taken a giant stride after disastrous home series against Australia and should end up as Test ATG atleast.He only needs a bit of longevity now considering he has already dominated a series in South Africa(twice),Australia and now recently in England.He averages 70 in NZ as well.

All in All,Tendulkar 100th century record is in serious danger considering Kohli’s outstanding conversion rate.

Still confused what "elite honesty" means? ???? https://t.co/ivQneUwwvt #AUSvSA pic.twitter.com/8nwupmkmVD

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) November 3, 2018

???? Australia certainly have been the most entertaining cricket side this year.

Now “playing with elite honesty” is the new catchphrase instead of “playing hard but fair”.

It would be interesting to see how Abbas career would pan out.So far he’s had an unbelievable start to his career by averaging around 15 and already winning Man of the series in England and UAE(Asia).He also has a great idol to look up to- Glenn Mcgrath who is unquestionably the Greatest Fast bowler of All Time if we consider both formats(Test and ODIs).

Tbh It’s unfair to say that Jadeja was outbowled(he actually had better stats than Ali in 5th Test) as it was only Ashwin who was completely outbowled by part time spinner Ali and probably cost India the series IMO.I would’ve backed India to win the series if 5th test was series decider as they would’ve had momentum after winning 3rd and 4th test.Before SA-India series, I said that India’s Pace unit is more impressive than spinning duo of Ashwin/Jadeja as they have the ability to outbowl opposition bowlers both home and away and I still maintain it.

I’m not a huge fan of Ashwin-A comfort zone bully who will look/bowl great when there is no real pressure/tough situations OR Jadeja-not a complete bowler and will be exposed outside Asia just like Ashwin if he is regularly picked in India’s playing 11 ,but I don’t think Yasir shah has done enough to be rated ahead of Jadeja/Ashwin.Yasir’s form also hasn’t been great lately.

Surely Curran deserves a 9 atleast.He was also the MOS and easily the most impactful player of the series.Curran also looks like a left handed bowling version of Chris Woakes with similar speed(Woakes is quicker) and action.So as mentioned in the article,He might struggle in flatter pitches in Tests just like Woakes.
Rest of the ratings are pretty much spot on.

I get where the Author is coming from and this article would’ve made lot more sense if this world was full of saints.People(Most) will cheat if they are allowed to cheat(think they can get away with).

More you show the audacity,the bigger will be your cheating.Stuart Broad was labelled as cheat because he didn’t walk despite a “huge” nick and it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal if it wasn’t a “huge”nick.

Many Students will try to cheat in exam if they think the teacher is very lenient.But only a few audacious students will try to cheat despite knowing that teacher is extremely strict and if being “caught”,they will pay the price.

Sometimes you have to draw a line when you label anybody cheat otherwise IMO Most people that I came across are cheats as well.

Anindya You’ve got it all wrong.If Smith retires now he will obviously lose points whenever Australia plays.

Why would you expect Smith to lose points when Australia haven’t played a Test after SA series?Infact no 1 ranked Smith will lose lot more points for missing test matches if we compare it to some mediocre ranked player missing some games.That’s why it is difficult to maintain ranking if you are on the top,be it player or Team ranking.

just to add,I think in some ways Players Rankings are more reliable than averages.

For Example-Kohli “statistically” had a decent series in SA where he averages 47.8 which was lower than his career average of 53.Under normal circumstances,you would expect a highly ICC ranked player to lose some points but instead he gained around 30 points because it took into accounts that it was an extremely low-scoring series where all the 60 wickets fell for the first time ever in 3 Test series.Although the reasoning of Kohli gaining 30 points in that series is much more intricate than saying “it was simply because of low-scoring series” but you got the point. In this case,His average didn’t do justice to his performance unlike ICC rankings.

Although Player’s ranking also has its flaws like not differentiating between Home and away performance but it goes same for team ranking as well.That’s why we see the likes of Yousuf,Sangakkara,Hussey,Root and Hayden have higher ICC peak ratings as compared to Sachin,Waugh,Lara and dravid.

No one can argue with stats put up by Ronan.England have been mediocre in Tests since 2013 whitewash in Australia.1 close win against India hardly changes anything.Their Win/loss ratio is still 0.75 in last 5 years.

In ODIs however,England are deservingly ranked no 1 and easily the best side in the world.

Steve smith ban for 1 year has slightly weakened his chances of becoming best Test batsman of this era.

But ATM Steve smith is still a league above any other batsmen in Test cricket.Closest to Steve Smith is probably Kohli.If Kohli wants to enter that league then he needs to have a great series in England like he did in SA recently(Highest run scorer in SA series).

If Kohli follows that great England series with another great series in Australia then he would surpass Smith and will become best Test batsmen in the world.

It will interesting to see who will end up as best Test batsmen of this era.IMO only Root and Kohli can challenge Steve Smith throne.Kane is unlucky because he plays for NZ(not big 3) and NZ are not that much interested in Test cricket.So I don’t think Williamson will get as much opportunity that Root,Kohli and Smith will get against top sides.

Root has massively underachieved in Test format.Inspite of that he is still one of the best Test batsmen right now.England plays lots of Test cricket and Root is 2 years younger than Kohli and Smith.However English batsmen generally don’t have a long career.Cook is only England player to get 10,000 runs.Apart from Cook,no other English batsmen has scored 9000 runs in Test format.

I don’t disagree Saurabh

Tbh I still don’t find anything wrong in my statement of India being “slightly lucky” due to Hales missing out.

In others words(We could also interpret),Hales was more likely of doing well in that “particular” ground than some of the other England batsmen.IMHO Apart from Buttler,I think hales had most chances of succeeding in that match(Root is struggling with form) and I’ve already given my reasons.

Nonetheless,That “slightly lucky”post wasn’t meant to be taken that seriously and he wasn’t the only player who didn’t play that game(woakes,bumrah and kumar also didn’t play).

Now,It doesn’t really matter whether hales or others would’ve done well or not in that match.What actually matter is that India won that match comfortably.

Forgot to add,Kuldeep’s 6-25 spell was one of the best ODI bowling performance i’ve seen in a long time.

I should’ve explained it better.Both Indian and England team are missing just 1 or 2 players.

1)Hales has a great record in his home ground as I wrote earlier.

2)Nowadays,confidence plays an important role while playing spin in Limited overs cricket.

Kuldeep in his last T20 match(2nd T20 vs England) had a bad day and India lost that match.The main reason for his poor outing was Alex hales who dominated him in that match.

Kuldeep 6-25 was the only reason why India won the last ODI match so comprehensively.

From Kuldeep’s perspective,I think he would’ve been very happy and confident that hales was not playing especially on his home ground.

3)Hales didn’t play 1st ODI because he was injured.Even if he was fit,I think there was 90% chance of Hales being dropped for that ODI.Main reason being England already dropped Root in last T20 match against India.The sudden dropping from both T20s and ODIs wouldn’t have done the confidence of England’s Test captain any good.

India were slightly lucky as hales didn’t play in his home ground.

last 2 matches on this ground,Hales scored 100s and England scored 444 & 481.

Good team.

behrendorff or Tye could replace Lyon.

1)Short should stick to playing only T20 cricket right now.I think he has a great future in ODIs but ATM he is not the solution Australia are looking for WC 2019.Australia have plenty of options already for opening position and Warner(who is improved version of short) is going to be back soon

2)Buttler is going to open in T20s for England which is a right move.

3)England have one of the Greatest ever batting lineups in ODIs

England’s full strength team could be-:

1.Bairstow
2.Roy (Hales could replace either of the openers)
3.Root
4.Morgan(C)
5.Stokes(He will definitely play)
6.Buttler
7.M Ali
8.Woakes
9.Willey
10.Plunkett
11.A Rashid

All 11 players can bat and also aggressively.

4)Buttler improved finishing skills(talking about getting his team over the line) has massively increased the chances of England winning in WC 2019.I think England will be in trouble at some point in WC and it will all depend on Buttler or Stokes.

There is no smith or warner,maxwell missed last match and Rest of the batsmen are underperforming.If Khawaja doesn’t make into this Australia XI soon then he might as well retire from ODIs.He is already 31.

I don’t know whether he will be good or not but would like to see him get some opportunity now.

some good comedy going on here.

Hoping Australia win this one.

Correction-:Finch as an opener averages 38.32 with SR 90.01 currently.

It is not fair to Finch if he bats in middle order instead of his favourite Opening position.But Australia should also look for long term solution.Warner will also be back for 2019 WC and there will be at least 1 opener who will be forced to bat in middle order.Now the problem is Openers will find it difficult to bat in middle order but still feel Finch has easily the most Potential to succeed.

1) Finch as an ODI batsmen has underachieved.He averages 37.87 and his SR of 89.91 is also mediocre by his standard.

Compared to his contemporaries opening batsmen(Average , SR)-:

H Amla(50.70 , 89.19) , R Shama(53.80 , 91.10) , De Kock(45.41 , 93.80) ,Dhawan(45.90 , 93.44)

and Guptill(44.96 , 87.26)

Note-:This is stats of players AS AN OPENER ONLY.

But the most relevant comparison for Finch is with Warner as they both play for same team,faced against same bowlers and in same conditions.

Warner averages 43.22 with SR 96..21.

But it is important to note that Warner was mediocre batsmen in the early part of his ODI career.

Since 2015,Warner has scored 2783 runs @ 54.56 with SR 105.5 whereas FInch scored 1915 runs @ 39.08 with SR 92.15.

2) In T20s,Same Finch has comfortably outperformed all the others Openers in the world.

He averages 40.20 with SR 151.69.

3) The reason for his Great performance in T20s could be because he gets to play less overs like he will if he bats in middle order for ODI Team.

When Finch is fully set in ODIs he doesn’t utilize like other openers do(Warner,Sharma,de Kock,Guptill) and rarely play exploding innings after that.The longer Finch stays at crease,the more he seems like struggling with bat.I think his fitness level is tested (which could be because he is not that used to playing Test format) and thus sometimes struggle to be aggressive after 20-25 overs. Also Finch hasn’t scored 150+ in ODIs unlike many other openers but has scored 156 in a T20 match.

Smith at 3 and finch at 4.

Finch is already sacrificing the precious Opening position in ODIs and it would make it worse if he bats in 5 or 6th position.

Buttler will open in T20s sooner rather than later.He will definitely play as an opener in next T20 WC which is in Australia 2020.But in ODIs,he should keep batting in middle/lower order.England already have decent openers.

For ODIs/T20,It’s basically a fact that nowadays middle/lower order batsmen generally find it much easier to bat in top order than for a top order batsmen to bat in middle/Lower order .

Buttler will come good as an opener in ODIs.But it also will left the spot vacant for finishing role.So far Buttler has been very good as a lower order batsmen in ODIs.He recently had great Ipl where his team was underpressure and he finished couple of matches.I think his finishing skill has improved which will only increases England’s chance for next year’s WC.