Yeah, I think you're definitely the number 1 test side in the world at the moment, but it's fairly tight at the top.Sir Sir_Didier_Drogba;3174917 said:Haha I love Northern Hemisphere rugby
I dont consider us the number 1 side in the world yet, despite us being that officially. I was hoping that this could be the start a bit of an English cricketing dynasty, but I fear for that now. Before we can even consider calling ourselves the best, we need to beat South Africa (and not just in a three test home series like the one this summer) and start beating some teams on the subcontinent - we need to win an away series against India and against one of Pakistan or Sri Lanka. Then we can say we are the best.
On their day, any of India, South Africa, Australian and England (the big 4 I guess) could beat any other, and when 'all bets are off' Pakistan are included there too.
I think it'll be hard to form a dynasty, as your peak is probably around now (based on age of most players etc), and I think there are too many other sides too close to you, for you to form a real dynasty.
I think India will just go downhill now, and South Africa, Australia and England will be the sides to beat. Australia on the way back up (finally have a reasonable spinner again, and a good pace attack), as long as the consolidate their batting longterm (Ponting and Hussey won't be around forever). South Africa are another with a really good bowling lineup, and a good, but ageing batting lineup. England have an awesome bowling attack, and at the moment with Cook, Strauss, Pietersen, Trott, Bell and Prior a really strong batting lineup, who aren't too old yet (in fact Cook could be a sensational player for years and years to come). Our batting lineup is finally getting in some young blood - Warner is an absolute freak talent, Clarke has quite a few good years ahead of him and Watson is awesome. But we need to start phasing in long stay options in the rest of the order - Wade should come in for Haddin soon, and I still think Khawaja at 3 and Watson 2, is a better idea than Cowan 2 and Watson 3.