~snip~.
Most chances they will try to go through for 400 but 350 is also good target for Pakistani batting line up which can collapse again on this pitch.
So far everything is going according to script. Most interesting thing would be Australian collapse, this test match could produce excellent cricket if Aussie get bowled out quickly and Pakistan chasing under 280-300 run target. It would be interesting to see Pakistani approach, so far in this series they didn't show any intent to win the match with the bat, hope this might change in the final inning of decider game.
But there dilemma is they can't produce same results when touring countries like Aus, NZ IMO.
Arey bhai, why are you using Australia example? May be use SA as an example but not Australia. India just won 2 back 2 test series in Australia.
Yeah Indian record is bad in NZ and they didn't won any series in NZ in this decade but that's what happen when you play in alien condition after 6 years gap. They've toured only 2 times there in last decade, i like to believe that if India team start touring them regularly and start playing long series then this record might improve drastically.
And no i don't think Pakistan is weak team, i've mentioned this countless time that Pakistan has every ingredient to become a top team in red ball cricket but ATM no, they are not top team. They rank 6 and we have only 10 test playing nation who play regularly (Not counting AFG/IRE).
WTC is not holy grail but its best possible solution to address test cricket's existing problems.
Before WTC, Bilateral test series had no relevance and no one was interested in tests, unless it's their team (Ashes, BT Trophy, Freedom Trophy and Ind vs Eng were outliers
-Eyeballs +Revenue-) but due to WTC point system every series has some weightage and it play big part because now fair amount of fans keep an eye on the point table/random series because other teams can also dent their fav team's standing.
Even ICC know that it has many flows but its a more like WIP kind of situation for them and could take time to mature, given they keep updating the format or learn something from each WTC cycle. If not then i believe
Relegation & Promotion Proposal is the solution.
But still, it doesn't seem like the popularity of test cricket has changed a lot. yes, a few more people are concerned about test cricket right now and they are looking at the points table from time to time. but it doesn't mean test cricket is progressing as a whole. there is no denying that test cricket is just too old and it's not for this generation. and honestly even I don't have any idea how to make it interesting again.
Group system seems good solution imo. Reposting old discussion.
Two divisions are needed, because the gap between the pig 3 sides and smaller nations such as Sri Lanka are increasing. I would rather prefer three divisions of test cricket. It will be as follows:
Division 1: India, Australia, New Zealand, England and Pakistan
Division 2: South Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and West Indies
Division 3: Zimbabwe, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland and Nepal.
Ind-Pak are not going to play so they might end up playing with only SENA countries in this system.
Guess we discussed this topic couple of times here, anyway IMO it would be better if they could divide teams into 2 group according to their ranking. As of now we have 12 tests playing nations.
Group A : Top 1-6 ranking team
Group B : Bottom 7-12 ranking team
