Real Test is yet to arrive

TWO provocative questions are hanging in the air after Australia’s decimation of a shambolic South Africa.

Is Australia really THAT good? Is South Africa really THAT bad?

First, the chastening truth. Once mighty South Africa is the saddest story in international cricket, a Test nation in a tailspin from which it is unlikely to ever recover, represented by a fractured group with little cohesion and even less team spirit.

As evidenced by two comical run outs, it’s every man for himself in a sinking ship.

The contrast in the press conferences was revealing. Australian captain Pat Cummins was on about mateship and team bonding while South African skipper Dean Elgar was having to defend a broken team in a broken system.

He knows it’s broken. By simply answering that he had to bite his lip when asked about South Africa’s cricket system said more than any answer he could have provided.

Cummins called the Australian side the best of his era and the suspicion is it has a little window where it will be the best side Australia has fielded since Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath retired in 2007.

But to snatch that ranking it will need to beat India in India for the second time in 53 years or England in England for the first time in 21 years.

Climbing one of those mountains would be a definitive punchline for a long-serving group who have given strong service for a decade.

Teams get the glory at home but the true measure of their worth comes offshore.

Australia has beaten Pakistan in Pakistan and drawn with Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka this year. It’s a solid entree.

The championship rounds arrive next year. The high water mark for Australian teams since Warne’s retirement was in 2013 when Mitchell

Johnson ran amok with one of the most explosive form surges in the game’s history.

That team – which simply destroyed England in Australia then beat South Africa in South Africa – would have been a match for any team simply for Johnson.

This team has no Johnson – and David Warner and Steve Smith may have been closer to their prime back then – but they have all bases covered.

What is beyond dispute is that there are some nations (Australia, England, India) which are still prioritising Test cricket while others (South Africa and the West Indies) are looking in other directions and are a fading shadow.

Stand by for more of these landslide results where the richest nations ruthlessly shoot down the ones who are letting the five-day game slide.

Cummins’ calm and measured captaincy has brought a cool consistency to the team.

Australia simply belted teams this year but they did it by 1000 cuts rather than clobber them over the head as England is doing. No Australian winning margin was less than 115 runs or six wickets.

But the ultimate rating as a Test team will be decided by three showdowns which have us drooling already.

Four Tests in India from February, the world Test championship in England and five Tests in six weeks in England for the Ashes make 2023 a year to define this team.

It sounds fanciful to think Australia could match strides with India in India given India have won their last two series in Australia.

But the team is happy and high in the water.

You never know.