England have now completed their series against South Africa, which, like all recent series in England, consisted of one-sided tests. England won three of them, the three matches in which they batted first (i.e. the team batting first won all three games); both sides are short of batsmen but have plenty of good bowling, but England prevailed thanks to their longer tail and the fact that their one batsman with genuine star quality, Joe Root, had a typically outstanding series whereas Hashim Amla, his opposite number, did not, and has possibly passed his peak. Moeen Ali's development as a bowler was a welcome sign for the hosts' future; James Anderson yet again topped the bowling average in an English series, in spite of also turing 35 during it, and England will miss him when he's gone.
Meanwhile, India seem more-or-less invincible at the moment, and have taken a 2-0 lead over their latest hosts, Sri Lanka, with one test to go. It will be interesting to see how this Indian team performs when it travels further afield - but its recent record at home and in the "near-abroad" is near impeccible.
The lastest world rankings are here: England have defeated South Africa the last time the sides met both at home and away, but overall, still trail them in the rankings:
India 206 +7
Australia 115
South Africa 89 -20
England 78 +20
New Zealand 53
Pakistan 8
Sri Lanka -12 -7
West Indies -64
Bangladesh -145
Zimbabwe -328
As they also do in the official rankings, whose only point of deviance from mine is the lower position assigned to Australia. Ahead of this winter's Ashes tour, I'm not sure England should take too much comfort from that.
India 123
South Africa 110 -7
England 105 +6
Australia 100
New Zealand 97
Pakistan 93
Sri Lanka 92
West Indies 75
Bangladesh 69
Zimbabwe 0
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