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Originally Posted by Tiger Manc
The only top 5 team England have played a full 5 Test match series with in the last 7 years is Australia. Even the recent battle for the No 1 Test spot with South Africa was a 3 Test match series.
Joe Root averaged 23 on the recent Lions tour to Bangladesh in ODIs. Although that's another format, those are hardly the stats of a 'World Class' opener. Cowan doesn't even average 30 and he's never scored a Test century. Tamim averages 49 against top 5 teams. He averages 63 against England and 58 against India.
Ashwin averages 62 with the ball against top 5 teams and Tahir averages 44. Neither even hold a candle to Shakib's average of 35. Even Lyon averages 37. Only Ashwin has a better batting average but his highest score is only 62. Shakib scored 144 against a Pakistani bowling attack that annihilated England's batting lineup.
I agree Tamim needs to score some more centuries and take his average above 40 to be considered World Class. But I still stand by statement that Tamim could get into the England and Australia teams right now and Shakib could get into the South Africa and Australia teams right now.
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It's always nice to see how people tweak the stats to prove a point and strip out games.
I was using seasoned players (not Cowan or Lyon or Root - all of whom are almost unheard of). Shakib and Tamim are well known and always thrown forward as 'legends' of cricket by local fans.
I cannot say that Root, Cowan and Lyon have remotely the same experience!
I also used career stats and not partial stats.
But anyhow, let's hope Tamim and Shakib.. who can get into the England or Australian sides right now according to a few ... can dominate the West Indies and take the Bangladesh team to a well-deserved series Test win 2-0.
Let's come back to this after and see.