The other day, I revealed the top six in my team of the English season which ended last week. Now for the rest of the Eleven which to me summed up the most notable players and performances across the whole summer.
I don't think it was a vintage year for all-rounders. Samit Patel enjoyed a good start to the summer for Nottinghamshire and, although he faded a bit, it was enough to get him back into the England set-up and indeed he played in this week's T20 internationals against the West Indies. Ravi Bopara also returned to the England fold but, apart from the first Windies T20I, it was as a batsman only. Durham's Ian Blackwell was solid but unspectacular while Gareth Berg produced some great all-round performances early and late in the summer, while missing out on most of the matches in between.
Mike Yardy was a welcome face back on the county circuit following his bout of depression last winter and he scored some telling first-class hundreds and took some one-day wickets for Sussex. Darren Stevens and Rikki Clarke were dependable as ever but my man for number seven is Chris Woakes. he's not normally thought of as an all-rounder but I rate him higher in those terms as Stuart Broad or Tim Bresnan. Maybe the England selectors want to see more of his bowling before giving him a chance. In only 11 Championship games for Warwickshire, he took 56 wickets at 21.78, while averaging 48 with the bat. OK, so he was less impressive in one-dayers but his consistent first-class cricket performances give him the edge for me.
My Team of the Season is not intended to set the standard as a world-beater, more as a clutch of individuals who lit up the English cricket scene between April and September. That is why the Championship's winning captain and the leading wicket-taker force their way into my side. David Masters is the epitome of a county pro, now at Essex, and his steady fast-medium pacers have taken wickets wherever he has played. 2011 saw him add more than ninety to his first-class career record, including 8-10 in a single innings against Leicestershire. At 37, Glen Chapple is four years older and has been a Lancashire stalwart for twenty seasons, While he was largely spared one-day duties this summer, he captured 57 scalps in the Championship at under 20 apiece and his enthusiastic captaincy also played a major part in his county's successful title challenge.
If I were to pick my other seamer purely on first-class performances, the leading contenders would have to include the evergreen Tim Murtagh (Middlesex), Andre Adams (Notts), Ryan Sidebottom (Yorkshire), Tim Linley (Surrey), Jon Lewis (Gloucs) and the one Sri Lankan to emerge from the summer with credit, Chaminda Vaas (Northants). However, I am going for a young bowler who earned his England spurs through his excellent limited-over ability and sheer pace, Jade Dernbach. With a little more consistency in the first-class format, he merits a spot amongst those pressing Anderson, Broad, Tremlett, Finn and Bresnan for a Test place.
Finally, amongst the myriad of tyro spinners advancing their careers through the medium of T20 (Borthwick and Briggs spring to mind), there are two who challenge for the final place in my Summer 2011 team. Monty Panesar is the forgotten man, who not five years ago was one of the best spinners in the world but who is now rebulding his career at Sussex. He bowled more than 750 overs in the Championship for 69 wickets, augmented by some economic contributions in CB40 and T20. However, my slow bowler of the year is Gary Keedy. He missed most of 2010 through injury but his availability for the past year made the difference in Lancashire's title push. In T20, his economy rate was under six, and he took 20 wickets at 17. He made little impression in the CB40 competition but in the four-day fixtures, emerged with 63 wickets at under 24 apiece. He didn't blast opposition away in single innings blitzes like team-mate Simon Kerrigan but he was always there nagging away at batsmen.
So there we have it. My complete Team of the Season reads: Cook, Trescothick, Hales, Bell, Taylor, Bairstow (+), Woakes, Chapple, Dernbach, Masters, Keedy. It was nice to see a mix of old and young making their mark on the season, and I hope to see more of the same in 2012.
