Test XI of the Year 2014

2014. Tumultuous. Fiery. Saddening. When Mitchell Johnson steamed into bowl during the Ashes in early January, the tone of Test cricket was set for the year. It was going to be menacing, it was going to be hard, and the game would redefine the fast bowler, once and for all. And hence it’s rather saddening that the very bouncer that made the Englishmen hop and the South Africans dance would be used with such tentativeness by the time the year came to an end.2014 would be remembered as the year in which the game claimed a promising career, but it would also be remembered as the year in which out of 15 series played, 13 gave results. Teams plundered runs and that too, at a tremendous pace. The impact of the advent of T20 was finally visible. 500+ runs were made in 15 innings, out of the five batsmen who had more than 1000 runs to their name – four had an average that was above 65. And it wasn’t just the batsmen who were having fun.Rangana Herath took nine, agonisingly close to equalling Jim Laker and Anil Kumble; little known Taijul Islam took eight wickets in an innings for Bangladesh, and the seven-wicket barrier was constantly touched – the honours shared by Johnson, Ishant Sharma, Mark Craig and Nathan Lyon. While Australia dominated 2014, with a win percentage of over sixty, India’s fledgling Test team gave heartaches, winning only 11% of their total games. It’s that time of the year when we list out the performers who stamped their class and authority everywhere they went. But before that, a few clarifications are in order:1) The shortlisting has been done taking into consideration the overall runs scored/wickets taken and their respective averages.2) The shortlisted players’ performance (only) against the top 8 Test teams of the ICC Cricket Rankings are then considered to evaluate their efficiency. The top 8 excludes Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. This has been done to avoid any inflationary impact on a player’s records due to his performances against weaker teams.3) The metrics used include home record, away record and performance in winning causes. The latter two have been allotted significant importance because of the sheer challenge in performing under alien conditions and putting up your best to help your team cross the line.4) The evaluation period starts from the Ashes in the 2013/14 season and ends with the completion of the India-Australia & South Africa-West Indies Test matches yesterday. 5) The team comprises of five batsmen, one wicketkeeper-batsman, one all-rounder and four specialist bowlers.And here we go...

#1 David Warner (Australia)

If there’s anyone in this line-up who just walks in straightaway, without any discussion or doubt, then it is this man.

David Warner has been in phenomenal form ever since he picked up the bat during the Ashes in late 2013, and has carried it right through to the home series against India. He has nearly 1600 runs in this period and a mind-boggling eight centuries. Despite a rough couple of weeks lately, he notched up centuries in both innings of the Test match against India at Adelaide, reaffirming his position as 2014’s best opener in Test cricket. Who would’ve thought!

	INN	RUNS	AVG	50s	100s	HS
Overall	24	1587	69.00	5	8	145
Home	14	805	61.92	2	4	145
Away	10	782	78.20	3	4	145
Winning	18	1212	71.29	2	7	145

#2 Murali Vijay (India)

India’s brightest spot in what has been a testing year for Indian cricket, Murali Vijay makes it to the Test XI as the 2nd opener, purely on the basis of his performance in overseas conditions. In the 11 Test matches that he played in the period, all were abroad and on varied surfaces – South Africa, New Zealand, England and Australia. And the best bit about his batting was the way he handled the lateral movement in England and the pace & bounce in Australia, a century in both these countries stand testament to this fact.

Vijay’s mastery over leaving the ball outside the off-stump has ensured that India has a solid and dependable opener for all conditions.

	INN	RUNS	AVG	50s	100s	HS
Overall	22	921	41.86	5	2	146
Home	-	-	-	-	-	-
Away	22	921	41.86	5	2	146
Winning	2	119	59.50	1	0	95

#3 Hashim Amla (South Africa)

The 31-year-old from Durban had an outstanding year to top the achievement of succeeding Graeme Smith as South Africa’s Test captain. Unlike usual, Amla hasn’t scored as many runs as some of the others might have on this team. However, that can be attributed to the fact that South Africa did not play as many Test matches in the same period. In the eight matches that he did play in, he averages close to 60 with three hundreds to his name. As captain, his average is a staggering 101.25, with 405 runs from 5 innings.

Hashim Amla’s closest competitor in this line-up was Kumar Sangakkara, who narrowly missed out because of Amla’s superior record, both away and in won games. Also, a current Test captain is always a bonus in any XI.

	INN	RUNS	AVG	50s	100s	HS
Overall	14	706	58.83	0	3	208
Home	10	509	56.55	0	2	208
Away	4	197	65.66	0	1	139*
Winning	6	371	74.20	0	2	208

#4 Younis Khan (Pakistan)

Talk about pure class, and you have one here. One of the mainstays of the Pakistan line-up for many years, 2014 provided Younis Khan with a fresh lease of life. Quite similar to his long time partner, Mohammad Yusuf’s dream run in 2006, Younis Khan notched up 6 hundreds and 2 fifties in the 20 innings he played this year. The best of his wrath was reserved for the Australians against whom he scored three of those hundreds.

Note: Pakistan’s matches in the U.A.E have been considered as ‘home’ matches.

	INN	RUNS	AVG	50s	100s	HS
Overall	20	1213	71.35	2	6	213
Home	16	1002	77.07	2	5	213
Away	4	211	52.75	0	1	177
Winning	8	642	107	0	4	213

#5 Steve Smith (Australia)

Australia’s 45th Test captain did just about enough all throughout 2014 to deserve the honour of leading his country. A predominantly aggressive limited-overs player, Smith adapted his game superbly to score 1145 runs from 22 innings in Tests. The best however came against India in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy where he scored a couple of hundreds almost at will.

Smith beat Joe Root to the No. 5 slot because of the former’s better performance overseas.Joe Root who had an outstanding year while playing in England, failed miserably when playing away – averaging below 30, while on the other hand, Smith put forward handy performances in the spin-friendly conditions of UAE and on the bouncy tracks of South Africa.

	INN	RUNS	AVG	50s	100s	HS
Overall	22	1145	63.61	4	5	162*
Home	13	702	70.20	1	4	162*
Away	9	443	55.37	3	1	100
Winning	16	922	76.83	2	5	162*

#6 Brendon McCullum [WK] (New Zealand)

4 hundreds. Two double centuries. One triple hundred against India.

Brendon McCullum punched above his weight all throughout the year. As captain, he led from the front and humbled India in front of home crowds and led by example. The 224 at Auckland after coming in to bat at 30/3 just showed his mental toughness. He not only disintegrated India’s bowling line-up by scoring at a strike-rate of 72, he also followed it up with an extraordinary 302 in the second innings at Wellington. Later in the year, he even scored a double century on the turning tracks of UAE.

For someone who has done a lot of wicketkeeping throughout his career, it’s never too late to ask him to get his gloves back on.

	INN	RUNS	AVG	50s	100s	HS
Overall	19	1140	60.00	0	4	302
Home	8	706	88.25	0	3	302
Away	11	434	39.45	0	1	202
Winning	9	556	61.77	0	2	224

#7 Angelo Mathews [C] (Sri Lanka)

Like McCullum, Angelo Mathews too, has led from the front – securing a historic series win for his team in England at the start of the English summer. With the bat, he has scored 1158 runs at an average of 96.50. And with the ball, he has picked up 7 wickets, doing a fantastic containing job with a miserly economy rate. He perfectly suits the bill if one is looking for a batting all-rounder who can do the fifth bowler’s job by bowling wicket-to-wicket and keeping the runs in check.

As a captain, he has lost just two matches, making him the ideal choice to captain the Test XI.

	INN	RUNS	AVG	50s	100s	HS
Overall	17	1158	96.50	6	3	160
Home	8	440	110.0	4	0	91
Away	9	718	89.75	2	3	160
Winning	7	426	85.20	1	1	160

#8 Mitchell Johnson (Australia)

Long before the tragic demise of Phil Hughes happened, there was a bowler who bowled menacingly fast. He threatened to break a few bones of the batsmen, and people moved all around the batting crease to save themselves from his deliveries. That bowler was Mitchell Johnson.

If the recently concluded Brisbane Test is any indication, it looks like that he is en route to regaining his mojo. The same mojo that got him 37 wickets against England at an average of 14, the very same mojo that caused havoc in the South African batting line-up.

In the same period, Johnson also scored 419 runs with the bat at an average of 28, with three fifties to his name.

	INN	WICKETS	AVG	5WI	SR	BBI
Overall	24	73	18.69	5	38.3	7/40
Home	14	45	17.91	3	35.3	7/40
Away	10	28	19.96	2	43.1	7/68
Winning	18	64	16.67	5	32.9	7/40

#9 Rangana Herath (Sri Lanka)

One of the keys to Sri Lanka’s successes in 2014, Rangana Herath might well have done a Kumble or a Laker, had he picked up that last wicket against Pakistan. He has had a fairly decent year, becoming the highest wicket-taker in the calendar year and taking another step in filling the huge void left behind by Muttiah Muralitharan in Sri Lankan cricket.

The next best alternative for the main spinner’s spot was Nathan Lyon. However, Herath fares better than Lyon not just in the number of wickets but also in average, strike-rate and economy.

	INN	WICKETS	AVG	5WI	SR	BEST
Overall	18	57	27.28	5	62.6	9/127
Home	8	35	19.74	4	50.6	9/127
Away	10	22	39.20	1	81.7	5/125
Winning	8	31	20.19	3	48.2	9/127

#10 Stuart Broad (England)

Stuart Broad narrowly edges out James Anderson from this Test XI largely because of two reasons. Firstly, Anderson’s performances outside England in this period have been very poor. He averaged above 40 during the Ashes down under and just has a single five-wicket haul to his name.

Anderson only managed to trouble an Indian line-up that wasn’t very confident against swing bowling coming into the series. Secondly, Broad with the bat can prop up the tail to quite an extent, getting the team the additional 20-30 runs that it needs every time.

	INN	WICKETS	AVG	5WI	SR	BEST
Overall	22	47	26.74	2	55.1	6/25
Home	13	26	26.11	1	62.2	6/25
Away	9	21	27.52	1	46.2	6/81
Winning	5	12	13.50	1	38.4	6/25

#11 Dale Steyn (South Africa)

It would be a treat to watch Dale Steyn and Mitchell Johnson opening the bowling together. Just as much as a nightmare it would cause to the batsmen. Like usual, Dale Steyn has had a fantastic year in Test cricket. He averaged better on the spin-friendly pitches of Sri Lanka than he did back home in South Africa on the livlier tracks of Durban and Johannesburg. Picking up 41 wickets at an average of 23, Steyn told everyone who the boss was.

	INN	WICKETS	AVG	5WI	SR	BEST
Overall	16	41	23.00	3	43	6/34
Home	12	28	25.57	2	46.8	6/34
Away	4	13	17.46	1	34.6	5/54
Winning	8	29	15.27	3	30.2	6/34