Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli in Harsha Bhogle’s Test Team of the Year; Five Aussies included
Only two Indians — Mayank Agarwal and Virat Kohli — made it into Harsha Bhogle’s Test Team of the Year, while Mohammad Shami missed out on a spot to New Zealand’s Neil Wagner. The team includes five Australians, three Kiwis, and England’s Ben Stokes playing the role of the all-rounder.
In a year where most teams, even the so-called “Big Four” of India, New Zealand, Australia, and England, struggled to find consistently performing openers, Bhogle’s Test Team of 2019 starts off with two relatively inexperienced openers Agarwal and Tom Latham. While Latham has produced consistent performances in several conditions, Agarwal — who has less than a year’s worth of international cricket experience — impressed in Australia before tearing South Africa and Bangladesh apart on home soil.
The XI also includes Marnus Labuschagne — who, like Agarwal got into the playing XI because of an injury — made the No.3 spot in the Aussie line-up his own and finished as the highest run-getter in the calendar year with an average of 64.94 and the returning Steve Smith, in at No.4, who, despite having only played eight matches, racked up nearly a 1000 runs with three centuries to his name. Virat Kohli, who bats at No.4 for India, had a slightly less prolific year compared to his own standards and was Bhogle's pick for No.5.
Largely for his Ashes heroics and overall consistent performances, Bhogle chose Ben Stokes to be the team's No.6, providing a solid balance to the side thanks to his ability to bowl long spells. New Zealand’s gritty, yet classy, wicketkeeper-batsman BJ Watling at No.7 completes what is a formidable batting line-up.
Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc are only two of a host of fine fast bowlers the cricketing world witnessed in 2019. But given that the duo has picked up more than 100 Test wickets combined at averages around 20, both of the two have found their names in the commentator's XI. As Bhogle himself put it, Shami looked lethal every time he had the ball in his hand, but it was impossible not to include Wagner, who picked up 43 wickets in only six matches (Shami had 33 from eight). In what was a poor year for spinners, Nathan Lyon — who returns as the best of the lot with 45 wickets — completes Bhogle's side.
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