Cricket
Which Country is the Best in Cricket? Ranking the top 3 teams
Know which country is best in cricket right now in the world. Get their ICC trophy list, win percentage across Tests, ODIs and T20Is and top players produced.
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Answering which country is the best in cricket is a complicated task given the varying formats of the centuries-old game and the different teams that dominate the various formats.
Over two centuries old, cricket is arguably believed to be the first global sport, which started in England and spread across the world. The sport that had gained popularity as a six-day game has since evolved into an exciting short format giving fans four hours of non-stop entertainment.
As per the International Cricket Council (ICC), the world cricket body recognises around 108 members although only 12 of them are full-time members with 96 associate nations. These 12 full-time members are nations where cricket has been the most popular over the last many decades. They are India, Pakistan, Australia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, England, South Africa, West Indies, Zimbabwe, New Zealand and Ireland.
Ranking them according to the number of ICC trophies won would oversimplify the process to a large extent. Hence, we will look at multiple aspects like the consistency of the team and the quality of players produced apart from silverware to rank the cricketing nations.
Best country in cricket: Ranking Top 3 nations
1. Australia
Australia has been the most consistent world-beaters in cricket for decades now with their trophy cabinet bigger than any side in the world. Despite West Indies emerging as the invincibles in the first two ICC World Cups in 1975 and 1979, Australia has gone on to win the ODI World Cup a record six times - the most by any cricketing country.
Such was Australia’s dominance that they had managed to reach the World Cup final in four consecutive editions of the tournament from 1996 to 2007 and winning it three consecutive times (1999, 2003 and 2007).
The culture of cricket, however, was prevalent in Australia long before most other nations picked it up. Australia was the team to play the first Test match against England in 1877, which gave birth to an epic rivalry and consequently to the iconic Ashes Test series.
Since 1877, Australia has played 866 Test matches, winning 414 games with a win ratio of 47.80% - the highest among all the Test-playing nations. Australia played their first ODI match in 1971 and the Kangaroos have since played 1002 ODIs, winning 611 games with a win percentage of 60.97%. Australia was one of the SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand & Australia) countries to start playing T20 Internationals in 2005, two years before the inaugural T20I World Cup). They have played 200 T20Is since then, winning 109 of them, achieving a win percentage of 54.50%.
In a glorious attempt to be relevant and consistent for two centuries in the game, Australian cricket has produced some of the most legendary cricketers. In Ricky Ponting, they introduced one of the best white-ball batters to the world and the most successful captain in men’s cricket. World’s best leg-spinner, Shane Warne, also belonged to Australia who inspired a generation of players to take up leg spin across the globe.
Among the veterans, Sir Donald Bradman was the best batsman to ever play the sport with an average of 99.94 in Test Matches. A few other legends of the yesteryears include Steve Waugh, Glenn McGrath and Adam Gilchrist while the current Australian cricket superstars are Steve Smith, David Warner, Pat Cummins, Mitchel Starc and many more.
Australia might not be the fearsome cricket team that dominated all pitches during the 90s and early 2000s, but they remain the team to beat in big tournaments. Despite their inconsistencies in recent years, Australia has won the 2021 T20I World Cup, the 2023 World Test Championship and the 2023 ODI World Cup in the last four years.
2. India
India’s rise in cricket has been truly unusual. It was introduced to the countrymen by the Britishers during their rule but the colonizers could never imagine the sport to garner such a religious statue in India. It is famously said that “Cricket is an Indian game accidentally discovered by the British”.
India had started producing cricketers long before the board had proper grassroots-level infrastructure and a talent-producing pool in place. Indians have always loved cricket but it was after the nation’s 1983 ICC ODI World Cup win that the sport took a turn for madness. Under the captaincy of Kapil Dev, India had stopped West Indies’ world domination in the ODI World Cups and although it took them 28 more years to repeat that feat, cricket’s craze never dimmed amongst fans.
India didn’t win any ICC trophy in the late 80s and the 90s, but they kept knocking on the door with semi-final finishes on multiple occasions before MS Dhoni delivered the ODI World Cup again in 2011. The ball had started rolling since the 2007 T20 World Cup triumph itself got fruition four years later. Dhoni completed the ICC trophy cabinet with the 2013 Champions Trophy, instilling the belief that the country couldn’t only produce superstars but also win trophies.
The nation that was once reliable on the singular shoulders of Sunil Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath, Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar today boasts a star-studded team full of match-winners across all formats. India’s biggest strength has been the ability to produce stars consistently. At the dusk of Sachin Tendulkar’s career, once the best cricketer player in the world, came Virat Kohli who Rohit Sharma later complemented. Kohli and Sharma are yet to retire and the likes of Yashashwi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant and others are already established.
The Board of International Cricket Council (BCCI) tapped into the cricket madness by introducing the Indian Premier League in 2008, a T20 competition that has become as popular as the England Premier League, NBA and NFL today. The income generated from IPL year on year makes BCCI the richest cricket board in the world.
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India has played 235 T20Is so far, winning 154 of them with a win percentage of 65.53%. In ODIs, the Men in Blue have won 559 of the 1058 games that they have played with a win percentage of 52.83%. While the longest format has seen India take massive strides over the last decade, especially under Kohli’s captaincy, the side has won just 179 of their 580 Tests with a win percentage of 30.86%.
3. England
While West Indies have surely been the more successful cricket side after Australia and India in cricket, the Men in Maroon have fallen from grace big time. From repeated failures to produce players who could dominate all three formats to not being able to qualify for ICC tournaments, West Indies have undergone a sorry state of affairs over the last two decades. England, on the other hand, has pulled up their socks in the last few years.
The birthplace of cricket and the country that introduced the sport to the world, England had for long been just participants in this major cricket tournament. It was England’s Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which laid down the cricket laws. Though there had never been a dearth of cricketing stars in the English squad with the likes of Geoff Boycott, Tony Greig, Ian Botham, Andrew Flintoff and more making headlines with their unparalleled cricket performances, an ICC trophy always seemed to evade them in every edition.
All that changed with Eoin Morgan becoming the side’s captain in 2015 following England’s dismal display in the 2015 ODI World Cup. An aggressive approach to the game and picking players who were more all-rounders than specialists helped England win their first-ever ODI World Cup in 2019 on their home soil as they edged past New Zealand by the barest of margins. That was followed by England winning their second T20 World Cup in 2022 under the captaincy of Jos Buttler after Paul Collingwood had delivered it back in 2010.
England should be credited for their disciplined structure of country cricket and other tournaments like T20 Blast, The Hundred and more for consistently producing cricketers across all formats.
England played their first Test match in 1877 and has since played 1077 Tests, having won only 397 of them. They have a 36.86% win percentage in the longest format. It gets better in the ODI though, where England has won 400 of their 799 matches riding on a win percentage of 50.06%. The English side has been quite prolific in the T20I format, winning 101 of their 194 matches with a win percentage of 52.06%.
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An M.A. in English Literature, Subhayan is an experienced journalist and sports writer. Having worked as a journalist at Hindustan Times, Subhayan covered diverse beats including sports, education, and health, showcasing his versatility and in-depth understanding of various subjects.