I don’t know, that’s a bit black and white

Yes Oz are #1 test team per ICC rankings so ex hypothesi they’re the best

But:

We’re #3 so beating them would hardly be extraordinary

They were missing two (later three) of their best bowlers who’d earned them their ICC ranking, whereas we (we thought) had managed to get our three best but injury prone bowlers into good shape

Head and Labuschagne had been in poor form

Root and Brook were #1 and #2 ranked ICC batsmen

So it was perfectly reasonable to expect us to be really competitive

Posted By: Old Git, Jan 8, 11:34:21