India, England, Australia, and New Zealand the strong teams, other falling away, says Harbhajan Singh
Harbhajan Singh reckons that apart from four teams – India, England, Australia, and New Zealand – no other Test-playing nations have a strong team at the moment. Bhajji was responding to Sourav Ganguly’s tweet in praise of the competitive draw that England and Australia played out at Lord’s.
Despite the rain wiping out five whole sessions out of a possible 15, the second Ashes Test match was fiercely contested. And the level of competitiveness between the two nations has earned praise from experts and fans alike. However, Bhajji suggested that it is high-time for other teams to raise their games if they want to be counted in the league of top teams.
“Standards can only be maintained if teams are strong but sadly apart from India, Australia, England, and maybe NZ in NZ are the only strong team left in world cricket,” Harbhajan tweeted, reported Hindustan Times.
Earlier former India skipper Ganguly took to Twitter to express his thrill at the quality of cricket in the Ashes.
“The ”Ashes“ series has kept Test cricket alive .... up to the rest of the world to raise their standards,” Ganguly tweeted.
Australia defied the absence of star batsman Steve Smith – because of a concussion injury – and more devastating spells of pace bowling by Jofra Archer to hold out for a draw in the second innings. The visitors retained their 1-0 lead in the five-match series.