An interesting topic, nevertheless.

Looking back at the history of the game, specially since the retirement of the Don, the only two teams that dominated world cricket for more than a decade were West Indies, late 70s to mid 80s and Australia, from 95 to 2004.

I will touch upon West indies later, but Australia, after the simultaneous exit of big 3, Greg Chappel, Rodney marsh and Dennis Lillee went into a phase of rebuilding with a captain AB (Allan Border) and they identified a core group of players that they persisted with, like Steve Waugh, Mark Waugh and so on. But the throne was literally captured in 1995 when Australia defeated WI in there own backyard with Steve Waugh scoring that famous double hubdred. Since then Mark Waugh changed the way test cricket was played, he played for results and Steve Waugh started a trend that would see them score almost 4 runs an over at will.

I still say the Australian team until the retirement of Steve Waugh was the best. Because after he left, the standard of world cricket was so depleted that Australia was barely challenged, apart from the Ashes of 2005. Any team could win against Australia ONLY IF THEY PLAYED EXTRAORDINARY CRICKET, like Sachin in Chennai, 155 n.o. in 2nd innings, VVS in kolkata 281 n.o., and Lara in WI, 151 n.o. and another double hubdred.

The team of Steve Wwaugh was a champion and perhaps better in versatility than the WI team of 70-80s in a way that it had the finest leg spinner who knew only one game..attack, the finest wicket keeper batsma..Gilchrist, perhaps the best batsman from Australia in terms of merit, grace, and elegance after Don in my eyes..Mark Waugh, an immaculate fast bowler Mc Grath, tearway fast bowler Brett Lee, and superb pace bowler on his day..Gillespie..add to that Ponting, Damien Martin, Justin langer...and yes..the UNSUNG HERO...ONE OF THE MOST ATTACKING BATSMAN TEST CRICKET HAS EVER SEEN, A VERY VERY UNDERRATED EXCEPTIONAL BATSMAN...MICHAEL SLATER, who has scripted many famous wins against some of the ferocious attacks in world cricket in those days.Pity, he succumbed to personal problems.

Then you had some of the best catchers. One can't see a better slip catcher than Mark Waugh, followed by Mark Taylor and Warne in order of extraordinary slip catching.

The point is: this team not only won consistently, but they had players who were all time greats, once in a generation players...and they performed against not these so called great bowling attacks of todays cricket..but the finest bowling attacks..Akram/Waqar, Ambrose/Walsh, Donald, all at there peak and yet score so quickly and kept raising bar of test cricket that it was then compared with the Don's Invincibles.

well, though India is winning, or even Ricky's team was winning, unless a team has 90 percent of cricketers who are all time greats, unless a team has a great and versatile bowling attack in terms of both spin and pace, unless a team has attacking batsmen like Mark Waugh, Ponting, Slater, Hayden and Gilchrist all playing in the same team, there can be no becoming Australia.

This Indian team is nevertheless blessed with bowlers like Ishant Sharma who troubles best of batsmen in worst of pitches, Zaheer Khan who is reverse swinging the ball at high pace and Virender Sehwag who if plays for more than 2 hours certainly changes the game. But this team needs Sachin, Dravid, Laxman at full form which is highly unlikely as they are on the verge of retirement and some great catchers who can instill confidence in spinners...then it can be the new Australia. At the m oment  even Australia team doesn't look like getting close to being what it was under Waugh.