India Are The Best Team In The World In Their Time
Every couple of months or so, I contribute an essay to ESPNCricinfo. My most recent contribution, which came out today, evaluated the current Indian Test team. By current, I refer to this current generation of players. I share this for you to read.
If we replicate the method of counting the most recent home and away series results for all teams since World War II, then the list of the most successful teams looks like this. Each row in the full table (it is organized by ‘DIFF’, which is WIN % - LOSS %, in descending order) represents the record of one team at the end of one season. The full table considers all teams after every season starting in 1945. The screenshot below gives the top 65 teams (65 is the number of rows I can fit in my terminal screen :) ).
All the usual teams are there.
In the order in which they appear:
The Australians in the period immediately following World War II, unsurprisingly dominate the list. Few other teams (including England) had the bowlers to compete with Lindwall, Miller, Johnston and co.
The Australians of the 2000s are similarly dominant. Few teams had the bowling to compete with Warne, McGrath, Gillespie and co.
The West Indies of the mid-1980s, just after Lloyd had given way to Richards are unsurprisingly present as well.
Graeme Smith’s South Africans of 2014-15 follow
Benaud’s Australians of about 1960 follow them. This is a team which is not normally associated in these lists.
Kohli-era India
Cummins-era Australia bring up the bottom. If they retain the Ashes, they will figure in this list as well.
The finest England sides (or, more precisely, the most successful England sides), in descending order of success are: The Dexter/May era England of the early 1960s, Strauss/Cook era England of the early 2010s, Illingworth/Cowdrey era England of around 1970, and the Vaughan era England of the mid-2000s.
The most successful Pakistan is the Pakistan of the Imran/Miandad era early 1990s
The finest New Zealand is the current New Zealand
If you’d like to know about specific teams, please leave a team and season in the comments, and I’ll post the results.
How does Ganguly's India fare in that period? Australia were dominant in that period.