Ben
Stokes escaped a jail sentence and the dial on his luck-ometer remained
fixed at eleven throughout the summer. His diving deflection and strokeplay
carried England to an extraordinary World Cup Final triumph at Lord’s against a
desperately unfortunate New Zealand, followed by a heroic unbeaten century of
eight sixes and strike-farming to save the Headingley Test. India consolidated
their number one Test ranking by winning all four Test series, including
rubbers in Australia and the West Indies. After losing their inaugural Test in
2018, Afghanistan claimed their first wins, against Ireland and, more
significantly, Bangladesh.
Sri
Lanka struggled again and, despite retaining their T20 top-rank status,
Pakistan had a nightmare year in all formats. Their only series success came
against Sri Lanka in 50-over cricket in their long-awaited return to
home-territory internationals. Let’s hope bringing internationals home after a
decade will be the springboard to a change in fortunes.
South
Africa were another side in transition. The Test team was slaughtered in India,
but whitewashed Sri Lanka in ODIs before a lacklustre World Cup. They also
suffered a whole host of international retirements, including Amla, Steyn,
Duminy and Imran Tahir. At least they ended the calendar year with a
first-class victory over England. Veterans Lasith Malinga and Shoaib Malik also
bade farewell to ODIs this year, and Yuvraj Singh won’t be playing at the top
level again. I wouldn’t mind betting, though, that they will continue to rake
in the dollars and rupees in Twenty 20.
So
who makes my team of the year?
David
Warner’s return to the fold reaped immediate rewards. Whilst not playing much 50-over
cricket, he nonetheless accumulated more than 2,500 runs in all formats. KL
Rahul was in superb white-ball form, nobody scored more List A runs than Aaron
Finch and Mayank Agarwal struck some huge scores for India, but my other opener
is Rohit Sharma. Outscoring even Virat Kohli in ODIs, he also scored three
centuries in six Test innings, including two in the First Test against South Africa.
His
captain Virat Kohli’s place in my end-of-year Eleven is almost guaranteed. Will
he ever suffer a loss of form? Skippering the world’s undisputed top Test
nation hasn’t hurt him as a batsman, averaging 68 in eight Tests and achieving strike
rates of 96 and 145 in ODI and T20 cricket, respectively. However, someone
scored more than four times as many first-class runs as the Indian master in 2019.
Not Smith, not Root, not Williamson. No, I’m talking about Marnus Labuschagne. I
confess to being ignorant of him prior to his string of hundreds for Glamorgan
in the early summer, but he proved to be no mere bully of Second Division county
attacks. At first deputising for Steve Smith, he went on to out-score him,
ending the year with three big Test hundreds in succession against Pakistan and
New Zealand advancing him to four in the ICC rankings. Including his
performances for Queensland he amassed 2,703 first-class runs in 2019, way
ahead of anyone else, and his leg-spin gives him an extra dimension, too.
Faf
du Plessis, Ross Taylor and even Dawid Malan had a commendable twelve-month
period but for my final middle-order slot I’ve leaned towards Pakistan. Last
year I narrowly plumped for Babar Azam in my XI. This time there can be no
doubt he deserves his spot. In an under-performing Pakistan outfit he shone strong
and bright. Not only was Azam the world’s top scorer in senior T20 cricket
(1,607 runs) but he also completed 2019 in a red-ball purple patch, striking
three tons and a 97 in four consecutive Tests. Aged just 25, he is young enough
to develop into a truly world-class all-round batsman.
My
wicketkeeper-batsman is an absolute shoo-in: Quinton de Kock. Carey, Paine,
Hope and Buttler each had their moments but the South African left-hander was
imperious in all forms of the game. He compiled more than 2,400 runs and 80
dismissals, boasting a three-figure strike rate in ODIs. AB De Villiers may have
been missed in the World Cup but De Kock
maturing nicely into a formidable member of the Proteas and T20 gun for
hire.
With
Shakib al-Hasan in disgrace, genuine all-rounders were in short supply. Jason
Holder is a big fish in a desperately diminished Caribbean pond where he contributes
a few wickets and the occasional astonishing innings; more than half his 2019
Test runs were scored in that 202 not out against England at Bridgetown. With
better team-mates around him, he would be in my team of the year but for sheer personality
and big-match temperament I’ve plumped for Ben Stokes. His seam bowling may not
have been world-class, and he didn’t really earn his millions for the Rajasthan
Royals, but for promoting cricket to the UK front pages for the first time in
yonks (probably since Stokes was up in court!) the Durham man gets the nod.
No
bowlers were truly outstanding. Even in his mid-thirties, Peter Siddle remained
one of the world’s most skilled seamers in the four-day game, Stuart Broad and
Jofra Archer led the England attack with brio, India’s Mohammed Shami was a
deceptively swift and prolific swing bowler in ODIs and Kabiso Rabada was a
consistent paceman for South Africa. The New Zealand seam attack of Boult,
Southee, Wagner, Ferguson and Henry were always impressive as a unit, though
not necessarily as individuals.
In
their place I have selected the Aussie pair of Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc. At
26, the former is finally fit enough to fire on all cylinders on a regular
basis, combining sheer pace with control. He’s not yet Glenn McGrath but he
took 59 Test wickets at just over 20 apiece, which is world-class. The
left-armer Starc is supposedly weaker in the Test arena but statistically he wasn’t far
behind Cummins.
Spin
bowling made less impact in 2019 so there were relatively few names in contention.
Simon Harmer’s 99 first-class wickets, helping Essex to another County Championship,
make him impossible to ignore. Naturally Rashid Khan entered my thinking, bowling
Afghanistan to an historic Test victory over Bangladesh and doing his usual
thing with the white ball. However, even he took fewer T20 wickets than Imran
Tahir. The South African may be almost twice the age of Rashid but his 79
victims, allied to 30 in List A fixtures, established his place at cricket’s
top table. And his joyful wheeling sprint celebrations after taking wickets at
the World Cup always lifted the spirits. If sport can’t do that, what’s the
point?!
In conclusion, here is my 2019 Team of the Year:-
Warner (Aus), R Sharma (Ind), Babar Azam (Pak), Kohli (Ind), Labuschagne (Aus), De Kock (SA +), Stokes (Eng), Starc (Aus), Harmer (SA), Imran Tahir (SA), Cummins (Aus)
My ‘squad replacements’ would be Rahul (Ind), Buttler (Eng), Rabada (SA), Mohammed Shami (Ind)
