[Series Thread] World Cup 2019

[sam_ahm]

I saw Afghanistan play yesterday and very very honestly i think Zimbabwe and Ireland are better teams overall in ODI cricket. There is a very good summary of the match given on cricinfo where the writer says Afghanistan are a team of No. 8s. They are not tailenders nor are they proper batsmen, barring probably Rahmat Shah, they are somewhere in between.

No wonder Afghans are a good T20 side, but they are just not good enough to survive 50 overs against top teams. Zim, Ire, Scot can easily be ahead of Afghans in ODI cricket, Infact I'm surprised that Afghans have made it to the WC ahead of them, shouldn't have happened really.

[Kriterion_BD]

I saw Afghanistan play yesterday and very very honestly i think Zimbabwe and Ireland are better teams overall in ODI cricket. There is a very good summary of the match given on cricinfo where the writer says Afghanistan are a team of No. 8s. They are not tailenders nor are they proper batsmen, barring probably Rahmat Shah, they are somewhere in between.

The format of the WCQ tournament ensured that the best 2 teams at that point in time qualified ie that the best 10 sides would comprise the WC. The format of this WC will ensure that the best 4 teams make the semis, and that the single best side becomes the champion. Pakistan won the 2017 Champions Trophy on a fluke and Bangladesh made the semis largely due to luck (couple of rained out matches). But this WC will be different unless a large number of games are washed out or reduced to fewer than 35 overs a side.

Afghanistan compete with more teams on more occaisions than Zimbabwe and Ireland do. Ireland compete well with Afghanistan, and Zimbabwe match up well with Ireland at home. We will see how they do away in a few weeks. The Afghans also have a lot of mental toughness. They are too far ahead of ZIM in head to head matchups to say that ZIM is as good or better than them.

Thus to me, Afghanistan are at least a notch ahead of Ireland, and Ireland is just an inch ahead of Zimbabwe.

[zimbos_05]

It’s annoying because everyone here in aus loves the Afghanis and thinks they are a bunch of competitors with the underdog status , if only they knew how much of a bunch of c**ts they really are. Can’t stand them and hope they get their arrogant swagger blown away this World Cup

It's because of the BBL hype. The guys who play in that comp get hyped up so much by the media. Rashid Khan farts and the media goes crazy.

The format of the WCQ tournament ensured that the best 2 teams at that point in time qualified ie that the best 10 sides would comprise the WC. The format of this WC will ensure that the best 4 teams make the semis, and that the single best side becomes the champion. Pakistan won the 2017 Champions Trophy on a fluke and Bangladesh made the semis largely due to luck (couple of rained out matches). But this WC will be different unless a large number of games are washed out or reduced to fewer than 35 overs a side.

Afghanistan compete with more teams on more occaisions than Zimbabwe and Ireland do. Ireland compete well with Afghanistan, and Zimbabwe match up well with Ireland at home. We will see how they do away in a few weeks. The Afghans also have a lot of mental toughness. They are too far ahead of ZIM in head to head matchups to say that ZIM is as good or better than them.

Thus to me, Afghanistan are at least a notch ahead of Ireland, and Ireland is just an inch ahead of Zimbabwe.

Could be the lack of sleep, but none of that makes sense to me.

[sam_ahm]

The format of the WCQ tournament ensured that the best 2 teams at that point in time qualified ie that the best 10 sides would comprise the WC. The format of this WC will ensure that the best 4 teams make the semis, and that the single best side becomes the champion. Pakistan won the 2017 Champions Trophy on a fluke and Bangladesh made the semis largely due to luck (couple of rained out matches). But this WC will be different unless a large number of games are washed out or reduced to fewer than 35 overs a side.

Afghanistan compete with more teams on more occaisions than Zimbabwe and Ireland do. Ireland compete well with Afghanistan, and Zimbabwe match up well with Ireland at home. We will see how they do away in a few weeks. The Afghans also have a lot of mental toughness. They are too far ahead of ZIM in head to head matchups to say that ZIM is as good or better than them.

Thus to me, Afghanistan are at least a notch ahead of Ireland, and Ireland is just an inch ahead of Zimbabwe.

I understand your point. It's a fair point Afghanistan do compete well and have had an edge over their rivals of late, but mate I think Zimbabwe and Ireland are actually more mature sides, problem with Zimbabwe is they keep missing key players or their players leave the country because their Board has messed things up. Ireland presently are in a rebuilding phase and need some good youngsters to come through.

Afghanistan on the other hand, despite the talent and full strength available, seem to lack maturity. Some of the shots they played yesterday were just appalling. If Zim can retain payers and keep getting games, also Ireland, I'm pretty sure in ODIs and Tests they will easily be better than Afghans.

Your team Bangladesh played so sensibly today against South Africa, it was so pleasing to see how mature Bangladesh has become as a cricketing nation. some people here in the subcontinent like Afghans and West Indies because of their flamboyance and one or two flash in the pan wins, but in reality it is a team like Bangladesh who is actually on the rise and it shows when they play these days.

[Kriterion_BD]

The format of the WCQ tournament ensured that the best 2 teams at that point in time qualified ie that the best 10 sides would comprise the WC. The format of this WC will ensure that the best 4 teams make the semis, and that the single best side becomes the champion. Pakistan won the 2017 Champions Trophy on a fluke and Bangladesh made the semis largely due to luck (couple of rained out matches). But this WC will be different unless a large number of games are washed out or reduced to fewer than 35 overs a side.

Afghanistan compete with more teams on more occaisions than Zimbabwe and Ireland do. Ireland compete well with Afghanistan, and Zimbabwe match up well with Ireland at home. We will see how they do away in a few weeks. The Afghans also have a lot of mental toughness. They are too far ahead of ZIM in head to head matchups to say that ZIM is as good or better than them.

Thus to me, Afghanistan are at least a notch ahead of Ireland, and Ireland is just an inch ahead of Zimbabwe.

I understand your point. It's a fair point Afghanistan do compete well and have had an edge over their rivals of late, but mate I think Zimbabwe and Ireland are actually more mature sides, problem with Zimbabwe is they keep missing key players or their players leave the country because their Board has messed things up. Ireland presently are in a rebuilding phase and need some good youngsters to come through.

Afghanistan on the other hand, despite the talent and full strength available, seem to lack maturity. Some of the shots they played yesterday were just appalling. If Zim can retain payers and keep getting games, also Ireland, I'm pretty sure in ODIs and Tests they will easily be better than Afghans.

Your team Bangladesh played so sensibly today against South Africa, it was so pleasing to see how mature Bangladesh has become as a cricketing nation. some people here in the subcontinent like Afghans and West Indies because of their flamboyance and one or two flash in the pan wins, but in reality it is a team like Bangladesh who is actually on the rise and it shows when they play these days.

With the Curran bros, De Grandholme, Ballance, Byrom and Welch, Zimbabwe would compete with Afghanistan, West Indies, etc. But had they stayed in Zimbabwe, they also wouldnt be as good as they are.

The thing with Afghanistan is that they play with pride and heart. Something Bangladesh also does. I dont know about Pakistan. The Irish also play with pride. But with Zimbabwe I feel the players dont much care barring a few. There was a time when it was accepted that Zimbabwe would improve if they played more games. It turned out to be the opposite...the more they played, the less they stood apart from the likes of Afghanistan or Ireland.

The eruopean tour will answer a lot of questions. From the 4-0 whitewash we know Zim are well ahead of the UAE (just succumbed to pressure in the Qualifiers last year). But I predict tours of Ireland will be very close. Even Netherlands and Scotland will be tough places for Zim to win.

[Andybligzz]

I have all the confidence in saying zim would out perform Afghanistan at this World Cup . We can argue all day and night who we think is better but in reality , we aren’t there and don’t deserve to be. I saw a interesting stat last night in the Bangladesh ( great win btw ) and South Africa match. Ireland have 3 out of the top ten highest scores chased down at icc cricket world cups. Included in those 3 chases was of course the highest World
Cup score ever chased down against England famously . Proves they can play with the big boys and offer world cups something , really believe the wc is better with the likes of them ,ourselves and Scotland ect .

[jaybro]

Problem for Zimbabwe is the player drain and lack of depth, at this point Hamilton is the only decent opener they have and really he needs replacing but there are no other options. The middle order is Zimbabwe's strongest area with BT, Williams, Raza, Ervine & Moor who seems to be coming on. The bowling is paper thin, Chatara and Jarvis recently have shown they're a good opening pair but Tiripano is average and would be getting mauled on these decks at the WC, with Cremer gone the spin department is now a weak point, Burl is been played as a spinner which shows the plight.

By my count the side has about 7 good enough players to compete at the WC, which is why they're not there in the end of the day.

[jaybro]

Getting back to the actual WC SOuth Africa are getting shown up big time for being the 'average' side they really are, 0-2 to start off and dropping a 'banker' game has really put them at long odds for the semis now. Steyn has missed the first two games and now Ngidi looks like he's done as well, they've conceded 300+ in both games so far, so much for having the best bowling lineup in the competition

They don't have a real 'Top Tier' world class batsman in their side IMO, Faf & QDK are good but they're not in the class of Smith, Kohli, Babar, Williamson, Root etc. They'll probably beat Sri Lanka and Afghanistan (maybe) but I think they'll lose the rest.

The player drain from the quota system is there to see and the effects are taking place.

[Kriterion_BD]

They don't have a real 'Top Tier' world class batsman in their side IMO, Faf & QDK are good but they're not in the class of Smith, Kohli, Babar, Williamson, Root etc. They'll probably beat Sri Lanka and Afghanistan (maybe) but I think they'll lose the rest.

Babar is half as good as Tamim or Mushfiq, both of whom are more or less as good as anyone on that list except Kohli. Numbers dont lie and Tamim and Mushy are among a handful over guys who average over 50 in ODIs since the last world cup. And they average more overseas than they do in Bangladesh.

Babar IMO is merely a decent player. He's half as good as Faf or QDK and not even comparable to Kohli, Root or KW. You also missed Bairstow...hes been a vital cog in Englands machine.

In my opinion the major ODI players should be classed as follows:

Kohli class: Kohli
Ultra World Class: Warner, Williamson, Root, Mushfiq, R Taylor, Starc, Cummins, Bumrah, Tahir, Kuldeep, Chahal
World Class: Smith, Rohit, Bairstow, Buttler, Tamim, Guptill, potentially Hope and Hetmyer, Mustafiz
ODI class: B Taylor, S Williams, Babar, Imam, Fakhar, Mendis, Matthews

I dont have stats off the top of my head for all of them, but that sounds about right. Not a complete list of course.

[jaybro]

Babar is half as good as Tamim or Mushfiq, both of whom are more or less as good as anyone on that list except Kohli. Numbers dont lie and Tamim and Mushy are among a handful over guys who average over 50 in ODIs since the last world cup. And they average more overseas than they do in Bangladesh.

Babar IMO is merely a decent player. He's half as good as Faf or QDK and not even comparable to Kohli, Root or KW. You also missed Bairstow...hes been a vital cog in Englands machine.

In my opinion the major ODI players should be classed as follows:

Kohli class: Kohli
Ultra World Class: Warner, Williamson, Root, Mushfiq, R Taylor, Starc, Cummins, Bumrah, Tahir, Kuldeep, Chahal
World Class: Smith, Rohit, Bairstow, Buttler, Tamim, Guptill, potentially Hope and Hetmyer, Mustafiz
ODI class: B Taylor, S Williams, Babar, Imam, Fakhar, Mendis, Matthews

I dont have stats off the top of my head for all of them, but that sounds about right. Not a complete list of course.

You clearly dis-like the Pakistan side and their players, saying Babar is half the player that Shakib & Mushy are shows how biased your comments are, so you lose your credibility in the first sentence of your argument.