A team of the year

If a horse designed by committee is a camel, then an XI picked by the Guardian’s cabal of cricket writers is, of course, The Spin’s best Test team of 2016. As well as myself, this year the 11-man panel included Vic Marks, Ali Martin, Tim de Lisle, Rob Smyth, Barney Ronay, Russell Jackson, Vish Ehantharajah, Will Macpherson, Dan Lucas and Nick Miller. Between the shortage of in-form openers, the surfeit of middle-order batsmen, and because England had played so much more than any other team, it was a particularly tricky year. Everyone picked their own XI, and when all the votes were tallied up, this is what we finished with:

Alastair Cook (England): 17 Tests, 1,270 runs at 42.33 It was July before Cook made his first century, 105 against Pakistan, an innings driven by England’s batting collapse at Lord’s the week before. Either side of that, he passed 40 or more in seven of the eight innings he played, without ever pressing on past 85. His form has been similar this winter. He made 130 to set up the declaration at Rajkot, but otherwise his batting has been a little bitty: 59 in Dhaka, 54 in Visakhapatnam, 46 in Mumbai, a final 49 in Chennai. Altogether, he seems like a man with a lot on his mind, a country squire so busy thinking about his estate that he hasn’t noticed he’s wearing odd socks or that his jumper is on back-to-front. But it was a poor year for openers, only Tom Latham and Azhar Ali made even half as many runs. Even in ordinary form, Cook scores more than most.

Joe Root (England): 17 Tests, 1,477 runs at 49.23 “A natural opener,” according to Tim de Lisle; “The England opener that got away,” agreed Vish Ehantharajah. And up the order here because, spectacular as David Warner has been in ODI cricket, he’s only averaged 35 in Tests, and brilliant as Kraigg Brathwaite’s century against Pakistan was, it was the only one he made all year long. Root, on the other hand, scored three, all extraordinary. The first was his 110 at the Wanderers, on a pitch where nobody else made it far past 50. Then there was his epic 254 at Old Trafford, when he flattened the Pakistani attack that had rolled England over at Lord’s. And finally there was his dapper 124 against India in Rajkot, the first century by an overseas batsman in India in over three years. In between, there were, as ever, a lot of 50s and flibbertigibbet dismissals.

Cheteshwar Pujara (India): 11 Tests, 836 runs at 55.73 Pujara sometimes seem like a penny-farthing pootling through a Grand Tour. He doesn’t play in the IPL, because even his home team, the Gujarat Lions, decided they didn’t need him when he went up at auction in the spring. On tour in the West Indies he chiselled out 62 runs in five hours of batting across two Tests, and was duly dropped to make room for Rohit Sharma. Virat Kohli asked him to be more positive in his play. Head coach Anil Kumble is on his side, but then as Kumble says, “I’m a bit old-fashioned”, and even he admitted that “the sword is always hanging on his head”. Pujara followed up with three 50s and a fine unbeaten century against New Zealand. By the time England arrived he seemed entirely imperturbable, and made back-to-back hundreds.

Virat Kohli (c): 12 Tests, 1,215 runs at 75.93 Kohli has the kind of numbers that demand double-takes. He’s scored mind-boggling quantities of runs in all three formats of the sport. He’s been the leading limited overs batsman in the world for a long time now, but this was the first year yet in which he could fairly claim to be the best in Test cricket too. He started it with one double century against the West Indies in Antigua, followed up with another double century against New Zealand in Indore, and finished with a third double century against England in Mumbai. There was the small matter of his 167 in the second Test against them, too. On top of all that, his captaincy seemed to add up to more than the sum of its parts, India are undefeated in their last 18 Tests. So he was one of two players all 11 selectors agreed on.

Steve Smith (Australia): 10 Tests, 914 runs at 60.93 Smith held on to top spot in the world batting rankings all year long, though his form has cooled off a little after running white-hot in 2015. He bossed New Zealand in their own backyard in February, when he helped settle the series with successive scores of 71, 138 and 53 not out in the three innings he played. After that, though, came that queasy, uneasy tour of Sri Lanka, when Australia’s spin-sick batting line-up fell apart around him. He made a fighting 55 in the first Test, and a fine 119 in the third, but that wasn’t enough to stop his side being whitewashed. Back on home soil, he strung together five good starts against South Africa without kicking past 60, before finished with 193 runs in the first Test against Pakistan.

Steve Smith in action against Pakistan. Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAP

Ben Stokes (England): 12 Tests, 904 runs at 45.2/33 wickets at 25.81 When Durham played Surrey in September, Stokes delivered a spell of off spin, the most surprising thing about which was that he didn’t take a wicket in it, because he’s shown himself to be expert at every other last little thing he’s turned his hand to. Before the first weekend in January was over, he’d battered one of the most breathtakingly brilliant innings played anywhere in the world this year, his 258 against South Africa in Cape Town. That was Botham-esque, but by the other end of the summer, he proved he knew another way to play, and produced some deft innings in both Bangladesh and India. With the ball there was a four-wicket haul against South Africa at Centurion, five against India in Mohali. Then in Bangladesh he emerged as the leader of the attack. Like Kohli, he was a unanimous pick.

Jonny Bairstow (England): 17 Tests, 1,470 runs at 58.8/66 catches, 4 stumpings Eighteen months ago, Bairstow wasn’t even in the England team. But at the end of 2016, he’s scored more runs and made more dismissals than any other ’keeper has managed in a calendar year of Test cricket. Ever so flaky first time around, Bairstow has now become one of England’s most consistent players, and has made as many hundreds as he has single-figure scores this year. Among his 17 scores of 40 or more, three peaks: his 150 in Cape Town, when he and Ben Stokes wreaked merry havoc on South Africa’s attack, his 140 on his home ground at Headingley, when he made more on his own than the entire Sri Lankan team managed in either innings, and his 167 against them at Lord’s the following week. In any other year, Quinton de Kock would have been a lock. But 2016 belonged to Bairstow.

Ravi Ashwin (India): 12 Tests, 612 runs at 43.71/72 wickets at 23.9 A level again above and beyond everyone else, Ashwin is the leading wicket-taker in the world this year by a distance. He played his 43rd Test just the other week, when India routed England in Mumbai and he took six for 112 in the first innings and six for 55 in the second. They were his 23rd and 24th Test five-fors. It’s not the numbers that are telling, though, but the company he’s in. In the long history of Test cricket, only SF Barnes has ever reached those marks in fewer matches. Likewise, that was Ashwin’s seventh 10-wicket haul, and again, only Barnes and Clarrie Grimmett have done it quicker. He also bowled out the West Indies in Antigua, with seven for 83, New Zealand, twice, in Indore, with seven for 59 and six for 81, and then again in Kanpur, with six for 132. Promoted up to No6 in the West Indies, he’s also had his best year with the bat, which makes him the leading all-rounder in the ICC rankings.

Rangana Herath (Sri Lanka): 8 Tests, 54 wickets at 17.53 A fortnight or so ago some wag sent messages to Channel 7 news offering them video footage of a short Sri Lankan man attacking a group of Australian tourists in Colombo. What they got, when they bit, were the highlights of Herath’s performance in August’s third Test, when he took 13 wickets for 145 runs. Herath had already taken nine for 103 at Pallekelle, and six for 109 in Galle – 28 wickets, all told, for just 13 runs each. Australia were utterly foxed. After that, Herath was made captain for a short tour of Zimbabwe, and, in his jovially roly-poly way, he tore them apart too, with 19 wickets in two Tests. Earlier in the year he’d only been so-so on the early summer tour of England, though he took four for 81 in the first innings at Lord’s, and clobbered 61 at Chester-le-Street.

The jovially roly-poly Rangana Herath. Photograph: Eranga Jayawardena/AP

Mitchell Starc (Australia): 7 Tests, 45 wickets at 21.51 Starc missed the first six months of the year while he was recovering from an ankle injury, but has been so sharp since that he makes it into the XI anyway. “Watching him bowl in Sri Lanka was up there with Ben Stokes’s 258 in Cape Town for sheer uncounterable brilliance,” reckoned Vish Ehantharajah. In that series, Starc took 24 wickets at 15 apiece. On a spinning pitch at Galle he was ferociously good, as if bowling quick was the best way to work through his issues with Australia’s own batsmen. He took 11 for 94, and among quicks, only Chaminda Vaas had ever taken more wickets in a Test in Sri Lanka. Back in Australia he bookended the series against South Africa with four for 71 at Perth, and four for 80 at Adelaide, then he steered his side through that perilous fourth-innings against Pakistan at the Gabba.

Kagiso Rabada (South Africa): 8 Tests, 42 wickets at 22.23 A gift, sent to warm the hearts of everyone who loves Test cricket. This was Rabada’s first full year, after he made his debut against India last November. He began it by shredding England at Centurion, with seven for 112 in the first innings and six for 32 in the second, the best-ever match figures at the ground. He was only 20 at the time, and only one man, Narendra Hirwani, had ever bowled better in a Test at a younger age. Rabada picked off five more in a match back at that same ground against New Zealand in August. Then when Dale Steyn came down injured in the first Test at Perth, Rabada led the attack against Australia, with seven wickets in their victory in Perth and five more in their win in Hobart. He took a wicket with every 35 balls he delivered, another key reason why he edged out older bowlers such as James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

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