WHO'S THE BEST? Was Test cricket's 'Class of 2011' the best ever? Scott Oliver Share Tweet

Philander and Kohli belong to the 'Class of 2011', probably the strongest ever batch of Test newbies ©Getty

It's farewell, then, to Big Vern, as he and his immaculate line and length, his relentless corridor nibble, head off to a county cricket dotage on the turners of 'Ciderabad' (aka Taunton, Somerset). It has been quite the career, beginning with a staggering five Man of the Match awards in his first 13 Tests as he reached 50 wickets in just his seventh game, the quickest since the 1890s - although it's a pity that, on debut, in November 2011, he and his comrades, Morkel and Steyn, having reduced Australia to 21 for 9, couldn't condemn them to the lowest Test score in history. That they didn't was largely down to the resilience of another of that year's rookies, Nathan Lyon.

Besides Philander and Lyon, 2011 gave us a vintage batch of Test debutants, many of whom are still in the upswing of their stellar careers. That year, Pat Cummins, James Pattinson and Ravi Ashwin all won MoM on debut. Three more than handy left-arm quicks - Mitchell Starc, Trent Boult and Junaid Khan - made their Test bows, as did Umesh Yadav, Doug Bracewell and Nuwan Pradeep. So too did David Warner, along with lesser batting lights Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Ed Cowan, Kraigg Brathwaite and Lahiru Thirimanne, as well as the spinners Imran Tahir and Elias Sunny. Oh, and there was a chap by the name of Virat Kohli.

All of which got us thinking: was the 'Class of 2011' the strongest ever batch of Test newbies? If you pick a Best XI - Warner, Brathwaite, Khawaja, Kohli, Marsh, Chandimal, Ashwin, Philander, Cummins, Starc, Boult/Lyon - your back-up seamers would be Umesh, Pattinson, Junaid, Bracewell and Pradeep. You might struggle to find a stronger pace battery debuting in any one year than that, although perhaps the batting could be improved. Time to investigate...

The first thing to say is that not every year of Test cricket's history provides enough debutants to make a Best XI, be that because of a lack of matches and/or lack of Test-playing nations. This means that interesting batches of players in such years as 1966 (Clive Lloyd, Derek Underwood, Basil D'Oliveira, Dennis Amiss, Colin Milburn, Keith Stackpole, Ajit Wadekar) and 1974 (Andy Roberts, Gordon Greenidge, Viv Richards, Madan Lal, Lance Cairns, Jeremy Coney, Gary Gilmour, Geoff Dymock, Mike Hendrick) would need to be bulked out by players barely remembered in their own families, let alone among average cricket aficionados.

The years when nations made their Test debuts

Secondly, the most abundant years for debutants are, of course, the years in which each country entered the Test-playing family, starting with the inaugural Test between Australia and England in 1877, for which there is scant HD footage available on YouTube. Even so, choosing a composite XI from the two old Ashes foes' first sides - and it's safe to say that scoring 165* out of 245 would get Charles Bannerman picked - is unlikely to yield Test cricket's strongest year of debutants, no disrespect to the 'Class of 1877'.

The next country in were South Africa - if you have heard of anyone who played in their inaugural Test match in 1889, you may well need help - followed by West Indies in 1928, New Zealand in 1930 and India in 1932, all of whom had luminaries in their inaugural line-ups: Learie Constantine for West Indies; Stewie Dempster of New Zealand, who averaged 65.73 in 15 innings before emigrating to England; and pace bowler Mohammad Nissar, who played six of India's first seven Tests before a ten-year hiatus brought on by the second World War. Predictably, however, you'd struggle to rustle up decent Best XIs for any of these years, even if they each saw stellar debutants: Don Bradman, Maurice Leyland and Douglas Jardine in 1928; George Headley and Stan McCabe in 1930; Bill O'Reilly and Bill Bowes in 1932.

Pakistan, in 1952, were next in, with a team featuring Hanif Mohammad, Fazal Mahmood and Imtiaz Ahmed, and although debutants elsewhere included Richie Benaud and Fred Trueman, the 'Class of '52' would also contain a number of makeweights.

Sri Lanka came next, in 1982, the year the likes of Saleem Malik, Martin Crowe, Maninder Singh, Allan Lamb and Kepler Wessels got started. Adding these and a few others to those Lankan pioneers - Duleep Mendis, Arjuna Ranatunga, Ravi Ratneyeke, Ranjan Madugalle, Roy Dias - gives you a passable mid-ranking team, but nothing to compare, yet, to our 'Class of 2011'.

1992 saw two legendary spinners set foot in Test cricket ©Getty

The next team into the Test fold were Zimbabwe, in 1992 - the same year that South Africa were readmitted to the international game. This year also witnessed Test debuts for Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Damien Martyn, Aamer Sohail, Jimmy Adams and Kenny Benjamin, among others. So if you chuck Andy Flower, Dave Houghton, Allan Donald, Hansie Cronje, Jonty Rhodes, Brian McMillan, Jimmy Cook and Peter Kirsten into the selection mix, there is a credible threat to Vernon Philander et al's future gathering of alumni.

The same can perhaps be said for 2000, when Bangladesh became the tenth Test-playing nation. However, with the greatest respect to Habibul Bashar, Mohammad Rafique and Khaled Mashud, they are unlikely to make the 'Class of 2000' XI, which also includes Kumar Sangakkara, Younis Khan, Zaheer Khan, Marcus Trescothick, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels, Matthew Hoggard, Chris Martin, Danish Kaneria and the unfortunately injury stricken Mfuneko Ngam. Competing for squad places are Wavell Hinds, Wasim Jaffer, Murali Kartik, Prasanna Jayawardene, Neil McKenzie, Nicky Boje, Mark Richardson, Dilhara Fernando, SS Das and Mohammad Kaif. A superlative batch, but no true all-rounder and a very, very long tail, however you juggle the bowling permutations.

The most recent year for new Test nations, 2018, of course offers very much an open question as to how its rookies will fare in the five-day game. Whether Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb-ur-Rehman, Mohamad Shazad, Kevin O'Brien or Ed Joyce eventually make it into the 'Class of 2018' will perhaps depend on how other careers pan out. The likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Prithvi Shaw, Rishabh Pant, Mayank Agarwal, Marnus Labuschagne, Ollie Pope, Sam Curran, Ben Foakes, Dom Bess, Rory Burns, Lungi Ngidi, Akila Dananjaya, Shaheen Afridi and Imam-ul-Haq will all have a say, although a couple look nailed on.

And the other years

That covers the admission of the twelve Test nations, but what about the years when no new nations joined? While there are obviously no set rules with this thought-experiment, the reader may feel that including any of the years in which a particular country got going in Tests is a bit of a cheat, creating a 'false abundance' not available to regular years. If that is the case, then the remainder of the serious contenders for Best 'Class of...' XI all come from the modern era, after the bulk of the nations were already in the Test fold.

The 'Class of 1978' is a clear contender, with the likes of Desmond Haynes, David Gower, Kapil Dev and Malcolm Marshall joined by several solid performers in a balanced team. As for the 1980s, for most of which the Test club was seven strong, there were a few years with good clusters of standout debutants - especially 1984 (Courtney Walsh, Dean Jones, David Boon, Aravinda de Silva, Craig McDermott and the briefly excellent Chris Broad, Tim Robinson, Manoj Prabhakar and Chetan Sharma) and 1985 (Wasim Akram, Steve Waugh and Mohammad Azharuddin leading the way, along with Merv Hughes, Bruce Reid, Geoff Marsh and Asanka Gurusinha) - although in each case the headline acts would need to be bulked out with journeymen.

Likewise 1989, when there was a fairly strong batch of pace-bowling debutants, including Waqar Younis, Ian Bishop, Angus Fraser, Devon Malcolm, Chris Cairns and Aaqib Javed, but not enough batsmen beyond Sachin Tendulkar, Mark Taylor, Mike Atherton and Hashan Tillakaratne to make a workable XI, and no options for wicket-keeper or spinner. In 1988, on the other hand, both Ian Healy and Jack Russell made their debuts, as did Curtly Ambrose and Robin Smith, but after that come a lot of mid-rankers or flashes-in-the-pan: Narendra Hirwani, Phil Simmons, Keith Arthurton, Mark Greatbatch and no fewer than seven England players with five caps or fewer.

Similar problems present themselves in the 1990s. Test cricket said hello to Brian Lara in 1990, along with wicket-keepers Alec Stewart, Moin Khan and Adam Parore, leg-spinners Anil Kumble and Mushtaq Ahmed, and batters Saeed Anwar, Marvan Atapattu and Nasser Hussain, but there were almost no new quicks, aside from Ezra Moseley, Chris Pringle, Atul Wassan and Chris Lewis.

1978 1992 1993 Desmond Haynes WI Jimmy Cook SA Gary Kirsten SA John Wright NZ Aamer Sohail Pak Michael Slater Aus Mohsin Khan Pak Inzamam-ul-Haq Pak Justin Langer (c) Aus David Gower Eng Damien Martyn Aus Graham Thorpe Eng Mike Gatting Eng Hansie Cronje (c) SA Daryl Cullinan SA Kapil Dev (c) Ind Andy Flower (wk) Zim Richard Blakey (wk) Eng David Murray (wk) WI Brian McMillan SA Heath Streak Zim Malcolm Marshall WI Shane Warne Aus Andrew Caddick Eng John Emburey Eng Kenny Benjamin WI Fanie de Villiers SA Sylvester Clarke WI Allan Donald SA Glenn McGrath Aus Rodney Hogg Aus Muttiah Muralitharan SL Peter Such Eng

1995 saw the first Test glimpse of Jacques Kallis, Shaun Pollock, Ricky Ponting and Saqlain Mushtaq, as well as Dominic Cork, Greg Blewett and Sherwin Campbell, but good luck making up a team from the rest. And the following year saw the introductions of VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, of Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz, Herschelle Gibbs and Lance Klusener, Nathan Astle and Venkatesh Prasad, but no real wicket-keeper and a choice between Robert Croft, Sunil Joshi and Brad Hogg for the spinner's berth.

As we have seen, the arrival of Zimbabwe and post-Apartheid South Africa in 1992 creates a formidable 'Class of' team, but the following year's batch is solid in both the batting and pace-bowling departments - Gary Kirsten, Daryl Cullinan, Michael Slater, Justin Langer and Graham Thorpe, alongside Glenn McGrath, Fanie de Villiers, Heath Streak and Andy Caddick - but the gloves have to go to England's Richard Blakey (two caps) and the spin department comes down to an underwhelming choice between Pat Symcox, Rajesh Chauhan and Peter Such.

1996 2000 2004 Herschelle Gibbs SA Chris Gayle WI Andrew Strauss Eng Matthew Elliott Aus Marcus Trescothick Eng Gautam Gambhir Ind Rahul Dravid (wk) Ind Kumar Sangakkara (c/wk) SL Hashim Amla SA VVS Laxman Ind Younus Khan Pak AB de Villiers SA Sourav Ganguly (c) Ind Ramnaresh Sarwan WI Michael Clarke Aus Nathan Astle NZ Marlon Samuels WI Ian Bell Eng Lance Klusener SA Zaheer Khan Ind Brendan McCullum (c/wk) NZ Robert Croft Eng Matthew Hoggard Eng Kyle Mills NZ Jason Gillespie Aus Mfuneko Ngam SA Nathan Hauritz Aus Michael Kasprowicz Aus Danish Kaneria Pak Dale Steyn SA Mohammad Zahid Pak Chris Martin NZ Lasith Malinga SL

The standout year of the next decade for Test debutants was 2004, particularly on the batting front, with a top six of Andrew Strauss (100 caps), Gautam Gambhir (58), Hashim Amla (124), AB de Villiers (114), Michael Clarke (115) and Ian Bell (118) - if the latter is selected over Dwayne Bravo at number six. Brendon McCullum (101 caps) takes the gloves ahead of Dinesh Kartik, Brendan Taylor and Geraint Jones, while three from Dale Steyn, Lasith Malinga, Kyle Mills and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan offer pace. Yet again, however, spin is a problem, with Nathan Hauritz the only frontliner in the frame. Andrew Symonds is also an option to share some overs with Michael Clarke.

The rest of the decade has even more serious selection issues than this team, although 2005 could give you a spin-free XI of Phil Jaques, Upul Tharanga, Shane Watson, Mike Hussey, Kevin Pietersen, Mushfiqur Rahim, MS Dhoni, Liam Plunkett, Mohammad Asif, Iain O'Brien and Shaun Tait. Not the worst, but no 2011.

Finally, the decade we have just departed offers us a couple of other candidates besides our 'Class of 2011' for the best year's batch of Test debutants - factoring in, of course, that many of the potential selection options' careers have yet to run their course.

2010 2011 2012 2013 Azhar Ali Pak David Warner Aus Dimuth Karunaratne SL Shikhar Dhawan Ind Che Pujara Ind Kraigg Brathwaite WI Dean Elgar SA Ahmed Shehzad Pak Kane Williamson (c) NZ Usman Khawaja Aus Faf du Plessis (c) SA Rohit Sharma Ind Steve Smith Aus Virat Kohli (c) Ind Joe Root Eng Ajinkya Rahane Ind Darren Bravo WI Shaun Marsh Aus Matthew Wade Aus Ben Stokes Eng Asad Shafiq Pak Dinesh Chandimal (wk) SL Johnny Bairstow (wk) Eng Glenn Maxwell Aus Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk) Pak Ravi Ashwin Ind Ravi Jadeja Ind George Bailey (wk) Aus Ryan Harris Aus Vernon Philander SA Sunil Narine WI Chris Woakes Eng Wahab Riaz Pak Pat Cummins Aus Neil Wagner NZ Bhuvneshwar Kumar Ind Steve Finn Eng Mitchell Starc Aus Jackson Bird Aus Mohammed Shami Ind Suraj Randiv SL Trent Boult NZ / Nathan Lyon Aus Shannon Gabriel WI Zulfiqar Babar Pak

So 2010, which you can see in the table above, gave us a glut of both top-order-batters-who-aren't-openers (Kane Williamson, Steve Smith, Che Pujara, Azhar Ali and Darren Bravo, with only Alviro Peterson a specialist new-ball blunter) and wicket-keepers (Tim Paine, Wriddhiman Saha, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Adnan Akmal), as well as a reasonable battery of quicks. But again, there are few spinners of quality (Xavier Doherty, James Tredwell, Suraj Randiv), which means the keeper should be chosen as a stand-back catcher who bats the best (sorry, Wriddi). A few limited-overs specialists (Eion Morgan, Suresh Raina, Andre Russell, Wayne Parnell) might also figure.

The 'Class of 2011' was followed in 2012 by a team with a handful of stars, plenty who have had solid careers and a few you'd have your fingers crossed about. 2013, likewise, has its stars - chiefly, Ben Stokes - with a trio of world-class Indians carrying the batting - Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane - along with a tidy spinner in Zulfiqur Babar and a plethora of seam-bowling options, with Chris Woakes and Mohammed Shami locked in and Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kyle Abbott fighting it out for the third seamer's spot. But there is no 'keeper and a dearth of frontline batters, aside from the aforementioned. Glenn Maxwell plays as a wildcard (isn't he always), George Bailey as gloveman.

And there we are. Ten standout batches from which to make your ultimate decision - and a few hours on Wikipedia may well offer further alternatives - although which one of those yields, in your opinion, the best XI probably depends on the criteria by which you judge a good team: the strength of the weakest link, the combined averages, the combined caps, the strength in all departments... West Indies dominated with Vivian Richards bowling the spin, don't forget.

But with Vernon Philander about to exit stage after a career that sees him picked - along with Boult, Starc and Cummins - in the 'Class of 2011' XI pace attack, it may be that his was indeed the strongest year, not only for seam- and quick-bowling newbies, but for its all-round XI.