Former England captain Nasser Hussain has lamented the fact that England are ranked eighth in the World Test Championship points table. England won 3 out of 9 Test matches, lost 5, and drew 1. Ben Stokes' high-risk, high-reward cricket has seen its advantages and disadvantages in result-oriented Test cricket.
England have won 2, lost 2 and drawn 1 Test against Australia, while they have won 1 and lost 3 against India so far. The team has a winning percentage of just 19.44 in the ongoing WTC tournament and is behind the likes of Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa.
Hussain, in his column in the Daily Mail, questioned the balance between entertainment and results, ahead of the team's final Test match against India in Dharamsala.
“For all the good things this England team has done in making people want to watch their matches, they now sit second in the World Test Championship table, and for me results remain the most important currency. In the end, all sporting teams are judged On their statistics. How they end up at the end of the season or series. In cricket, how many runs have you scored, and wickets have you taken,” Hussain wrote in his column.
England lit up the stage with their innovative style in Hyderabad in the first Test match, but have failed to win big in their last three Test matches. There were several instances where England were on the verge of taking the lead in Test matches against India, but the team failed to capitalize on those moments.
“The England team have been great to watch over the last couple of years as well, but the win-loss ratio is the most important thing in my view, so they must get the scoreline against India back to 3-2 in Dharamshala this week.” Al-Hussein said.
“Of course, they will still have lost the series, but they can then point to the third day of the third and fourth Tests, when they let things slip away on each occasion, as justification that they were competitive throughout the five-match round,” he added. “They simply failed to take advantage of the opportunities they were given.”
India currently tops the WTC points table with 5 wins in 8 matches. Rohit Sharma's team is followed by New Zealand and Australia in second and third places.
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