The Test team that I have picked for the year 2018 features two players each from India, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, and one each from England, South Africa and the West Indies.
Two notable players to have missed out very narrowly are South Africa’s AB de Villiers and Australia’s Pat Cummins. This year’s team has two players in common with team I had picked for 2017 – Virat Kohli and Kagiso Rabada.
1) Dimuth Karunaratne (Sri Lanka)
The left-handed Karunaratne was the most consistent opener of the year, with a tally of 743 runs at 46.43.
He carried his bat for a brilliant 158* against South Africa at Galle, and backed it up with three fifties later in the series. He was Sri Lanka’s highest run-getter in the series against England as well, even as his team lost all three matches. His gutsy 79 at Wellington held Sri Lanka’s first innings together.
2) Kusal Mendis (Sri Lanka)
Partnering Karunaratne at the top is his compatriot Mendis, who was the year’s second-highest run-getter with 1023 runs at 46.50, including three overseas hundreds. He kicked off the year with a career-best 196 at Chittagong, and followed it up with 102 in defeat at Port of Spain and a match-saving 141* from number four at Wellington, where he batted out the entire fourth day with Angelo Mathews.
Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis celebrates (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
3) Kane Williamson (New Zealand, captain)
Captaining the XI is the the dependable Williamson, under whom New Zealand won each of their three series. The 28-year-old led from the front, collecting 651 runs at 59.18.
He scored 102 to play a part in England’s innings defeat at Auckland, but his best display came in the deciding Test at Abu Dhabi, where his innings of 89 and 139 paved the way for New Zealand’s first away win over Pakistan in 49 years.
4) Virat Kohli (India)
The irrepressible Kohli scaled new heights, producing several breathtaking performances to establish himself as the year’s best batsman with a run tally of 1322 at 55.08.
The Indian captain’s five hundreds included a stellar 153 at Centurion, a lone-ranger 149 at Edgbaston (he went on to score 593 runs in the series in England – 244 more than the second-highest), 107 at Trent Bridge and 123 at Perth.
Virat Kohli of India celebrates (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
5) Henry Nicholls (New Zealand)
The year gone by saw Nicholls gradually become an indispensable part of the Black Caps’ middle order.
The southpaw’s first Test innings in 2018 was 145* against England at Auckland, after which he played a crucial role in New Zealand’s triumph in the UAE with 126* in the second innings of the second Test. He finished with a career-best 162* against Sri Lanka, bringing his year’s return to 658 runs at 73.11.
6) Jos Buttler (England, wicketkeeper)
Though he kept wicket in only one Test, Buttler’s achievements with the bat were hard to ignore, thereby making him the top choice to take the gloves.
His total of 760 runs at 44.70 was the fifth-highest in the year, with a best of 106 against India at Trent Bridge – his first Test hundred. He contributed regularly in the series win in Sri Lanka, where he was England’s second-highest scorer with 250 runs at 41.66.
7) Jason Holder (West Indies)
Holder takes the all-rounder’s spot for his commendable showing of 336 runs at 37.33 and 33 wickets at just 12.39.
The West Indian captain scored 74 in the first innings and returned match figures of 9/60 against Sri Lanka at Bridgetown, albeit in a losing cause. He later bagged 11/103 against Bangladesh at Kingston, and despite being hit by injury, recorded his fourth fifer of the year at Hyderabad.
Jason Holder. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
8) Kagiso Rabada (South Africa)
The leading wicket-taker of the year, with 52 scalps at 20.07, was the exciting Rabada, who is currently the world’s top-ranked bowler.
The speedster’s finest spell came in the second Test against Australia at Port Elizabeth, where he demolished the middle order en route to 5/96. For good measure, he added another 6/54 in the second innings. He led the bowling charts for that series with 23 wickets at 19.26.
9) Yasir Shah (Pakistan)
In a year that saw him become the fastest to 200 Test wickets, Yasir netted 38 victims in just six matches at 23.52 apiece.
The leg-spinner missed the tour of England due to injury, but returned to bamboozle New Zealand in the UAE. Though Pakistan lost the series, Yasir enhanced his reputation with 29 wickets at 19.03. The highlight was a stunning 8/41 in the first innings (14/184 in the match) at Dubai.
Pakistan leg spinner Yasir Shah celebrates after taking a wicket. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
10) Mohammad Abbas (Pakistan)
Abbas displayed his bowling prowess with a haul of 38 wickets at 13.76. The seamer was instrumental in Pakistan’s first two wins of the year, with match figures of 9/110 against Ireland at Dublin followed by 8/64 against England at Lord’s.
He continued in the same vein against Australia in the UAE, where he snared a career-best 10/95 (5/33 and 5/62) at Abu Dhabi to end the two-match series with 17 wickets.
11) Jasprit Bumrah (India)
Armed with an unusual sling-arm action, Bumrah had a fantastic start to his Test career, with his 48 wickets at 21.02 being the third-highest tally by a bowler in his debut year. He grabbed eyeballs with 5/54 at Johannesburg, and later took 5/85 at Trent Bridge.
But he reserved his best of 6/33 for the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne, on the way to match figures of 9/86 – the best by an Indian fast bowler in Australia.
Ravi
Roar Rookie
If you can't grasp that simple fact, Ronan, your comments are understandable because you're out of your depth. How did your guy do on day one? Delusional!
Saurabh
Guest
If u r keeping pujara out of the test 11, I think u have definitely got wrong choices
john
Guest
Whats the point of turning up the pace if you're gonna be hammered? Look at 2018 stats, as a collective unit Starc, Hazelwood and cummins were the worst performing out of all the test nations. in 2016 philander bowled at 120k, and was man of the series with bat and ball outbowling starc and hazelwood. That Australian team featured smith and warner.
Rustom Deboo
Roar Guru
Yes, as I mentioned at the outset, Cummins and de Villiers missed out very narrowly. Did not see any reason to drop either of Rabada, Abbas or Bumrah.
Rustom Deboo
Roar Guru
Yasir missed the England tour due to injury, so I thought it would have been unfair to drop him just because he played only overseas Test. Numbers-wise, he out-bowled Lyon.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
To be fair Cummins averaged 20 for the calendar year, which is pretty damn good, though I’d put Bumrah’s performances ahead for some of the reasons you mentioned.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Some very astute choices here. But I’ll have to call foul on picking Buttler as keeper. He didn’t play as a keeper. As careers of players like Sangakkara, McCullum and Buttler himself have shown, doing great as a specialist batsman doesn’t mean you’ll have a strong batting record if you wear the gloves as well. Tim Paine and Watling of NZ have the best batting records among the good keepers. I can’t see how you can pick Mendis as an opener as he doesn’t bat in the top 3. Big scores off Bangladesh and the Windies are one thing, but he only averaged 16 against South Africa and 30 against England at home. AB de Villiers on the other hand was a stand out choice in his 7 matches against India and Australia, averaging over 50 and playing some brilliant innings. Babar Azam also had a better record in the middle order than Mendis. My team: Karunatane Pujara Williamson Kohli De Villiers Nicholls Paine Rabada Yasir Shah Abbas Bumrah
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Ronan this is the team of the year, reflecting achievements - which I assume takes into account averages, key performances and the quality of the opposition. It isn’t the same as picking your best team, so in rewarding the specialist bowlers you can turn a blind eye to batting and fielding weaknesses. Bumrah took 48 wickets at 21 in nine Tests, all away from home, including 6 against the second and third teams in the world, and these were the first nine Tests of his career! Give the guy a break. Cummins deserves consideration, as does Philander who was just as instrumental as Rabada in beating India and Australia and averaged 17 for the year. Either of these would get in ahead of Holder taking into account the standard of the opposition. A bit of a stretch in my view to put Latham or Watling in the top six ahead of Nicholls. Latham perhaps has a case for being one of the openers of the year average good but his average depended on 264* v Sri Lanka at home, whereas he had ordinary series vs England (ave 36) and Pakistan (17). But Nicholls was outstanding and a had a much higher average.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
He didn’t score his runs as a keeper.
Paul
Roar Guru
and our guys will cut their pace and bowl the same as Siddle did in the recent County season. The advantage the 3 Australian quicks have is they can turn up the pace several notches if conditions require whereas Anderson cannot. And why won't they last 5 Tests
Watcher
Guest
As a Kiwi will advocate for Watling. He scores in situations where NZ is in trouble and needs someone to grind. A huge quality along with being a tidy gloveman. The other is Trent Boult. He deserves to be in the mix not saying he is a certainty but is up there as a Bowler.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
"To argue he should be selected as a bowler because he can bat as akin to selecting M.Mash for the same reason." Haha that's some next-level nonsense.
Kopa Shamsu
Guest
My team would be Latham Karunaratne Mendis Williamson (c) Nicholls Buttler Matthews Rabada Abbas Cummins Lyon
Ravi
Roar Rookie
Sorry that should be addressed to @Ronan not @ Rustom
john
Guest
lets wait till the 2019 ashes. i can gaurantee you that starc hazelwood and cummins wont last 5 tests. anderson at 120k will be better than most at 140k.
Ravi
Roar Rookie
@Rustom of 11 selections you only argue the case of the one you suspect is wrong. Cummins is a good player at home in some games. To argue he should be selected as a bowler because he can bat as akin to selecting M.Mash for the same reason. There are many bowlers who bat better than Cummins (Marsh included). Pat's made 2 fifties in his career and never got a hundred in any format at any level. His batting average is 21 - worse than M.Marsh. Bumrah out bowled Cummins in Cummings' back yard. 20 wickets v 14. Both good, but Bumrah is far better. He's the reason India is ahead.
Paul
Roar Guru
Did you watch the Perth Test at all? Michael Vaughan showed two slides about how many times Indian bowlers would have hit the wickets in both the first and second innings and on both occasions it was less than 10. How did Bumrah go in England in conditions that should have suited him? The Oval Test was a standout - match return of 3 for 144. His inability to get the tail out was one of the main reasons India lost that series 4 - 1.
john
Guest
"Of course not, they’re neck and neck as bowlers" - can you please clarify? Cummins was no where in the first 2 tests, all he did was bowl short, averaging about 60. 1 test doesnt make him back in form. Look how many variations bumrah has. Every ball, batsmen struggle to play him. Bumrah outbowled the entire australian attack in australian conditions, he even has a 5 for in English conditions. Lets see cummins play all 3 formats without breaking down. Do you recall cummins going for 20+ runs per over against a weaker south african team in australian conditions? Which strike bowler does that in their home ground?
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Normally as a specialist batsman you need to average 55+ in a calendar year to get even a sniff of being in the World XI yet Markram (33), Pujara (38) and Root (41) are getting a gig here - just shows how incredibly tough a year it has been for Test batsmen. My team: 1. Latham 2. Kunaratne 3. Williamson 4. Kohli 5. Mendis 6. Watling 7. Holder 8. Cummins 9. Rabada 10. Yasir 11. Abbas One thing you need to remember when you pick Bumrah is that you're only playing with 10 batsmen because he is one of the worst tail enders of all time. Bumrah only scores 1.5 runs per Test - per TEST - in his career, think about that. That makes it incredibly hard to pick him ahead of someone like Cummins who scores 30 runs per Test on average. So Bumrah instantly concedes 28 runs per Test to Cummins. Is Bumrah's bowling worth an extra 28 runs per Test, in overall impact, compared to Cummins? Of course not, they're neck and neck as bowlers. Plus Cummins is a much, much better fieldsman than Bumrah who is awful in the field. There are 3 skills to cricket - Bowling, batting and fielding - and Bumrah is amazing at one and awful at two of them.
John
Guest
bumrah has 5 wickets hauls in SA, Eng and Aus. cummins was averaging 60 with the ball before this test in this series. 1 match doesnt make him back in form. Do you recall cummins went for 20 runs in the recent SA odi series, in australian conditions? that never happened to Bumrah or Rabada.