Flop playing 11 in Men's Tests 2024 ft. Virat Kohli & Rohit Sharma

The year 2024 was arguably the most unique in the long and rich history of Test cricket. With scoring rates at an all-time high and the batting resistance drastically reduced, the year witnessed only three draws in 53 outings.

Two of those draws came towards the close of the year in December, while the other one came in the South Africa-West Indies series in August. Yet, it also meant several batters, even legendary ones, struggled for consistency and hit all-time lows in terms of batting numbers.

The ever-evolving T20 format and the T20 World Cup being played in 2024 meant a host of batters were in a hurry even in Tests and lacked their usual rhythm. That isn't to see the star bowlers and all-rounders fired on all cylinders as many struggled to be at their best with the ball in the 2024 season.

Bangladesh and New Zealand's stunning upset away series wins over Pakistan and India were the most notable Test results of 2024.

The prevalence of the World Test Championship (WTC) also meant teams were going the extra mile for a result, resulting in fewer draws.

As we look forward to another exciting Test season in 2025, let us look back on 2024 and come up with a flop playing XI in Tests for the year.

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Openers: Rohit Sharma & Usman Khawaja

Last year was a season from hell for the openers in Tests with several accomplished opening batters enduring dismal performances throughout the year. Openers like Zak Crawley, Tom Latham, Dimuth Karunaratne, and Devon Conway, among others just missed the cut for his dubious distinction.

Unfortunately, given their historical success and the massive drop-off in 2024, India's Rohit Sharma and Australia's Usman Khawaja are the openers for the flop XI. After back-to-back spectacular seasons in 2022 and 2023, averaging 67.50 and 52.50 over 24 Tests, Khawaja fell off the cliff spectacularly in 2024.

The southpaw scored only 415 runs in nine Tests at an average of under 26 with two 50+ scores in 18 innings.

Meanwhile, Rohit's case is slightly more perplexing, considering his excellent first half of 2024. The Indian skipper scored two centuries and a half-century in his first six Tests of the year before things dramatically went south.

Rohit finished 2024 with only 164 runs in his final 15 innings at an average of under 11 and a lone half-century. It meant his overall numbers for 2024 read 619 runs at an average of under 25 in 14 Test outings.

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Middle-order: Marnus Labuschagne, Virat Kohli, & Ollie Pope

Australia and India's batting struggles in 2024 are further reflected by the stunning downfall of Marnus Labuschagne and Virat Kohli at No.3 and 4 in this playing XI.

The former started the season in style with back-to-back 60s before going through a dismal run of form. Labuschagne recorded single-digit scores in seven out of his nine completed innings before his half-century in the Adelaide Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Despite finishing 2024 with consecutive half-centuries in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, the Aussie right-hander finished with only 464 runs at an average of 30.93 and no centuries.

Coming to Kohli, the slide has been unfathomable, considering his incredible 2023 season across formats. The champion batter scored only 417 runs in 10 Tests in 2024 at an average of 24.52 with a lone century and half-century.

Kohli's average of under 16 played a key role in India suffering a humiliating 0-3 home series drubbing to New Zealand before the Australian tour.

England's Ollie Pope started 2024 with one of the all-time great Test innings in the series opener against India, scoring 196 to help his side pull off a thrilling win. However, the rest of the season was marred by inconsistencies with the occasional magic.

He finished the year with 994 runs in 17 Tests at an average of 33.13 despite mostly batting in the top order before shifting to No.6 for the recently-concluded New Zealand series.

Pakistan skipper Shan Masood and Bangladesh batter Mominul Haque were equally disappointing but missed the middle-order list due to their overall reputation being much lower than the three mentioned above.

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Wicket-keeper and all-rounders: Litton Das, Shakib Al Hasan & Jason Holder

Bangladesh wicketkeeper Litton Das was neither productive nor responsible for most of the 2024 season. After three consecutive seasons of averaging 40+, the 30-year-old averaged a paltry 24.62 in nine Tests with a lone century and half-century.

Former Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan had arguably his worst all-round Test season in 2024. Barring the odd impressive showing during Bangaldesh's historic win in Pakistan, the veteran was mostly off-target.

Shakib finished 2024 with a batting average of under 20 and a bowling average of 43.53 in five games.

The pace-bowling all-rounder battle for one spot in this unwanted 11 was between Jason Holder and Ben Stokes with the former unfortunately just edging ahead. Despite a reasonable batting average of 34.50 in Tests, Holder's lack of penetration with the ball proved costly all too often.

He finished with a horrendous bowling average of 67.40 while picking up only five wickets in Tests last year.

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Bowlers: Tim Southee, Naseem Shah & Shoaib Bashir

New Zealand's Tim Southee had a rough farewell season in Tests despite the side's stunning upset of India in India.

The veteran pacer picked up 17 wickets in 11 Test outings at an average of 59.11 and an economy of almost 3.70. Southee's poor showing had a massive impact on New Zealand's home series defeats to Australia and England in 2024.

Talented Pakistan pacer Naseem Shah did not live up to his potential with the red ball in 2024. The 21-year-old played only three Tests but Pakistan lost all three outings with the speedster picking up only 9 wickets at an average of 42.55 and a woeful economy of 4.14.

England off-spinner Shoaib Bashir promised plenty in his debut season before ultimately fading away in the back half of 2024. After picking up 17 wickets in his first three Tests in India, Bashir bagged only 32 scalps in his next 12 outings.

He finished 2024 with 49 wickets in 15 matches but at a sub-par average of over 40 and an economy of 3.75.

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Flop Test XI of 2024

Rohit Sharma (c), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Virat Kohli, Ollie Pope, Litton Das (wk), Shakib Al Hasan, Jason Holder, Tim Southee, Naseem Shah, and Shoaib Bashir.