Best Test XI of the decade 

9. Rangana Herath

Herath retired in November 2018

Despite becoming a regular in Sri Lankan Test team very late in his career, Rangana Herath is one of the top 10 wicket-takers of all time.

Until the time Muttiah Muralitharan was active, there was no permanent place for Herath in the team; he played only 21 Tests from 1999 to 2010. But in the period after Muralitharan’s retirement until his own retirement in November 2018, Herath played 73 Tests.

In this decade, he scalped a whopping 363 wickets at an average of over 26 including 30 five-wicket hauls and nine 10-wicket hauls. Away from his own backyard, he picked up 89 wickets in 28 Tests.

Herath's overall stats - 433 career wickets – make him an undisputed pick in this team.

10. Dale Steyn

93 Tests – 439 wickets – average of 22.95

Among the greatest bowlers of the 21st century, or perhaps the greatest of them all, South African quick Dale Steyn has a phenomenal record in Test cricket.

Steyn's action is such that it doesn’t require a lot of energy, yet allows him to bowl at extreme pace while also extracting a good amount of lateral moment from the pitch. In-swinger, out-swinger, deadly bouncer, unplayable yorker and a variety of slower balls – the speedster has them all in his kitty.

93 Tests, 439 wickets, average of 22.95, 27 four-wicket hauls, 25 five-wicket hauls, five 10-wicket hauls – no adjective will do justice to the kind of Test career Steyn has had.