The World Test XI of 2019

Bowlers

Pat Cummins (Matches - 12, Wickets - 59, Average - 19.34, Five-wicket hauls - 2)

Pat Cummins

Shortly after he enjoyed a sensational Test debut against South Africa in November 2011, Pat Cummins suffered the first of many injuries. These injuries kept the young tearaway pacer out of Test cricket for more than five years. During his time away from the game, Cummins worked hard on becoming more robust and stronger.

Since he made his comeback in March 2017, Cummins has been injury-free and is reaping the rewards of it. The Australian captured 29 wickets in 2017 and 44 in 2018.

But 2019 was even better. Cummins troubled a lot of batsmen with his extra bounce, express pace and subtle movement off the pitch. Some of the highlights in the first half of the year were a ten-wicket haul against Sri Lanka and gaining the No.1 ranking in March.

In the second half of the year Cummins enjoyed a splendid Ashes series (29 wickets at an average of 19.62).

Mitchell Starc (Matches - 8, Runs - 42, Average – 20.71, Five-wicket hauls – 4)

Mitchell Starc

Mitchell Starc possesses all the skills a fast bowler needs to pick up wickets aplenty in Test cricket. They are listed, in no particular order: a smart cricketing brain, express pace, a good bouncer and good control (Starc’s control is now much better because he recently refined his bowling action).

When Starc is able to use these skills in tandem, he is very destructive.

This is precisely what happened in 2019 - the fast bowler captured 42 wickets at 20.71. He established his place in Australia’s four-prong pace attack (they were rotated in 2019 so that everyone got chances) and destroyed the Sri Lankan, Pakistan and New Zealand batting line-ups. Impressively, Starc registered four five-wicket hauls in 2019 (the joint-most with Neil Wagner).

Neil Wagner (Matches - 6, Wickets - 42, Average - 17.98, Five-wicket hauls - 4)

Neil Wagner celebrates yet another wicket

Neil Wagner does not use the same skills as his fast bowling peers to get wickets. He does not possess the express pace of Archer, does not swing the ball like Southee or extract prodigious movement off the pitch like Philander.

But, by using his own effective method, Wagner captures wickets at a lightning speed (he’s taken 133 wickets in the last four years).

If one watches a highlights reel of Wagner’s bowling, it is obvious that the short ball is his wicket-taking delivery. The Kiwi bowls nearly half of his deliveries short of a length. If those were waist-high deliveries they would be easy pickings for the opposition batsmen, but Wagner ensures that they are directed at the rib-cage. He bowls those deliveries with remarkable accuracy and waits until the batsman makes a mistake.

Wagner took 42 wickets at 17.98 in 2019.

Nathan Lyon (Matches - 12, Wickets - 45, Average - 33.26, Five-wicket hauls - 2)

Australia v New Zealand - 2nd Test: Day 4

Nathan Lyon was one of Australia’s unsung heroes of 2019. Because Australia’s pace attack dominated the headlines (Cummins, Starc and Josh Hazlewood with 33 wickets all performed excellently), Lyon operated mostly in the background.

But Australia’s ace spinner enjoyed a good year nonetheless. He took 45 Test wickets in 2019, the second-most of any bowler. His best performance came during the first Ashes Test at Birmingham, where he returned match-figures of 9-161.