In late 2016, many teams were vying for the title of "best team in the world". Since then, India have been dominant, although mostly at home. Now, they have begun a tough tour of South Africa, which will provide evidence of just how good they really are. And their first match has been lost, to a team which was beaten on their tour of England this summer, to an English team that has just been well beaten by Australia for the fourth time in five matches. What can we make of all this? Above all else, that it's harder than ever to win test matches away from home. And whichever of the current strong teams next manages to beat a major opponent in an away series might have a credible claim to being the best in the world. Neither my system of rating teams, nor the offical system, takes account of whether matches are played home or away - maybe they should.
So here's how my ratings currently stand:
India 177 -23
Australia 141 +12
South Africa 126 +23
New Zealand 73
Sri Lanka 29
England 24 -12
Pakistan -27
West Indies -86
Bangladesh -135
Zimbabwe -322
And here are the offical ratings, now incorporating the Ashes matches, but which won't integrate the results from South Africa until that series is over:
India 124
South Africa 111
Australia 104 +7
New Zealand 100
England 99 -6
Sri Lanka 94
Pakistan 88
West Indies 72
Bangladesh 72
Zimbabwe 1
The next match between South Africa and India begins on Saturday.
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