My World Cricket Team of 2024

It has been a strange year for men’s cricket. No side truly dominated, although that has to be considered a plus. India began the year by demolishing England 4-1 at home, yet were unexpectedly turned over 3-0 by New Zealand’s spinners. The Black Caps also dismissed South Africa yet were themselves turned over by spin against Sri Lanka and, last month, by England’s pace attack, although they had the last laugh at Hamilton. 

In the summer, England predictably cruised to a whitewash of West Indies but again showed vulnerability in the final Test against Sri Lanka. This continued in Pakistan where, following the record-breaking scoring by Joe Root and Harry Brook at Multan, the home nation recalled veteran left-arm spinner Noman Ali, who responded by taking twenty wickets in the two remaining games! 

Australia are looking set to face South Africa in next summer’s World Test Championship Final after series victories against Pakistan, New Zealand and, while still incomplete, India. Their only Test hiccup came in last January’s day-nighter at Brisbane where Shamar Joseph’s pace saw the Aussies capitulate on the final afternoon and hand the West Indies a rare victory by just eight runs. 

In limited-overs formats, India eased to the T20 World Cup final, having pricked England’s balloon of bragging in the semis. Afghanistan were amazing, reaching the same stage thanks to shock wins against the Aussies and NZ. Despite his side being blown away by South Africa, Rahmanullah Gurbaz ended the tournament as top scorer, but it was India who lifted the trophy courtesy of fine bowling and a man-of-the-match-winning 76 by Virat Kohli. 

However, the Indian legend was less successful in Tests. Astonishingly, he ended the year averaging less than 25, although this was superior to that of Pakistan star Babar Azam. At least the latter had his T20 performances to redeem his year. Kane Williamson looked back to his best after injury but Australia’s batting looked lacklustre in the wake of David Warner’s retirement. Their Test successes were achieved on the shoulders of veteran bowlers like Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon. 

South Africa played few Tests, but David Bedingham top-scored for them, building upon his prolific season for Durham in the County Championship. Nobody notched more first-class runs than Joe Root, who overtook Alastair Cook as England’s top Test run-scorer, yet even he was eclipsed by fellow Yorkshireman Harry Brook. Fully embracing the principles pf Bazball, he has raced past 2,000 runs at an average of 58 and strike rate of a phenomenal 88.

In that first Test in Pakistan, he amassed 317 at almost a run a ball, sharing a new England record partnership with Root of 454. Brook is now 25, but England seem keen to blood a raft of players with no real track record in the domestic game. Shoaib Bashir must have bowled more balls for England than Somerset, with mixed results and now Jacob Bethell has been encouraged to take his one-day county form into the Test arena with not a single first-class century to his name. James Anderson may have been dragged kicking and screaming into retirement at 41 but Gus Atkinson looked a useful replacement, taking 52 wickets in 11 Tests. 

Travis Head was the outstanding Aussie across all formats, especially with the white ball, and West Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Nic Pooran accumulated more than 2,300 Twenty20 runs around the globe. Participating in just about every franchise competition in existence, the 29-year-old must have racked up the highest hotel bills, too. Wanindu Hasaranga also has little Test pedigree but, of the top-ranked nations, proved one of the most consistent spinners in the 50- and 20-over game, surpassing the likes of Rashid Khan and Adam Zampa. 

Fellow Sri Lankan Kamindu Mendis bounced back onto the Test scene with some splendid batting, topping 1,000 runs in a mere nine appearances, while the ropey form of Sharma and Kohli was eased by the assured top-order strokeplay of Yashavsi Jaiswal. He was absolutely rampant against England at the start of the year, thumping not one but two double-centuries. 

However, star ma of the year must be Jasprit Bumrah. He is just irrepressible and, whilst not bewildering batsmen with his pace, movement and unique action, actually makes playing cricket look fun. It’s not just his 71 Test wickets at a ludicrously low average of under 15. He has also brilliant in defeat to Australia and weas a commanding presence for India in the T20 World Cup. In the final, Kohli may have scooped the MOTM prize but it was Bumrah’s 2-18 from four overs in the face of South Africa’s run chase which probably deserved the award. He is 31 now, so won’t take as many career wickets as his retiring team-mate Ashwin but I hope he is around for many seasons to come. 

So here is my 2024 Team of the Year:

Jaiswal (Ind), Head (Aus), Root (Eng), Brook (Eng), K Mendis (SL), Poonan (WI +), Jadeja (Ind), Atkinson (Eng), Hasaranga (SL), Cummins (Aus), Bumrah (Ind)

Stunning start to the 2023 Ashes!

I must confess that all Bazball hype had left this Test cricket fan rather subdues and less than enthusiastic about the home Ashes series. For starters, I cringe at the way so many so-called England fans believe that cricket revolves solely around the occasional battles with Australia and possibly a World Cup so long as the nation is winning. I cling desperately to the association of TV cricket with the ‘Soul Limbo’ tune and am old-fashioned enough to detest the shift to drunken football-style crowds. 

And yet if Test cricket is to survive the flood of Twenty20 and Hundred, who am I to complain about any connection felt between young English blokes and the traditional summer sport (at least, while the footie season is in abeyance)? Whether it’s the cider bar at Taunton or the Hollies Stand at Edgbaston, if people are enjoying themselves and perhaps enjoying some cricket then it must be a good thing. I only hope that that those who attended the First Test, especially on the final day, appreciated what was happening on the pitch because it was quite extraordinary. 

I confess I rarely watch the game on TV these days, with little inclination to sacrifice whole weeks to Sky’s coverage. Thanks, BBC, for your website coverage and evening highlights show. There were certainly plenty of highlights on offer this week. 

It was billed as the clash between Bazball and the old-fashioned Aussies. How things have changed! The tourists were crowned world Test champions only the other week so Ben Stokes was unlikely to have everything his own way. 

On Friday morning, he did. From Zak Crawley’s courageous crunching cover drive from Pat Cummins’ opening half-volley to the bravado of Brooks and Bairstow and another imperious century from Joe Root, England were stroking their way to a total well into the 400s. Then the skipper declared on 393-8 to leave Broad and Robinson a few overs hopefully to dismiss Usman Khawaja and perennial cartoon villain David Warner. 

Tipping convention on its head has been a hallmark in England’s astonishing transformation last year. This decision, along with some novel field placings, were well to the fore at Edgbaston but the declaration was unsuccessful in its prime aim. Nonetheless, it served as an appetiser for some superb Test cricket over the next four days. Broad got Warner (of course he did!) and Labuschagne, then Stokes pinned the other hate figure, Steve Smith, for 16 but Khawaja played an excellent restrained innings lasting eight hours. Head and Carey were bolder, and Cummins joined in with the six-hits off poor Moeen Ali, whose raw spinning finger must have been awfully painful. 

With a slender lead of seven, England sallied forth to set the Aussies a tough target and unleash a pumped-up Broad, Anderson and Robinson. This time, Cummins and Nathan Lyon never allowed the batsmen the same freedom and nobody passed fifty. Alex Carey took another three catches and added a third stumping, illustrating England’s penchant for taking risks to the spinner. They scored at ‘only’ four an over but were all out for 273. So to a dramatic climax full of twists and turns. 

The raucous crowd must have helped England’s bowlers and put the fear of God into the Aussies. At 143-5 and four dismissals to Bairstow’s name, all looked rosy for Stokes and co. But that man Khawaja was still there. When Green played on, Robinson looked set to explode, and even Stokes looked quite calm when his ultra-slow delivery fooled the Aussie opener. 209-7, 82 short. A fabulous caught-and-bowled by Joe Root ended Carey’s resistance and surely the tailenders wouldn’t survive the pressure and score the required 54 to win? 

Statistics were against them. During the morning rain delay, commentators were keen to remind us that Australia always lose tight matches. Not since a young debutant Cummins struck the winning runs to beat South Africa by two wickets in 2011 had they edges such a close finish, but against all odds he repeated the feat. Khawaja also played in that match in Johannesburg, and his second innings score of 65 was identical to his corresponding total at Edgbaston. Statistics, eh? 

I wouldn’t begrudge the Aussies their victory. Stokes seemed to take the defeat stoically but in good heart. England came oh-so-close, four Tests to come, blah-blah-blah. I think another England victory could have killed the series as a sporting spectacle. Now we have something really special to look forward to. Test cricket is back, folks!

2019 Review - My Team of the Year

As most years, 2019 experienced a range of cricket-related emotions. David Warner and Steve Smith returned from their bans to mixed reviews. Warner enjoyed some success in the IPLwhile his former Test captain swapped tears for a deaf ear to barracking England fans and almost single-handedly retained the Ashes for Australia. However, possibly the world’s only genuine world-class all-rounder, Shakib al-Hasan, ended this year in disgrace, suspended for at least a year for ‘failing to report corrupt approaches’. He really ought to have known better. 

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)

Ashes 2019 – England’s luck finally runs out

Last week I wrote that England looked set to build on that incredible Stokes-led fightback  at Headingley and surely seize the Ashes as they did in 2005. Well, how wrong I was. Yet England’s new-found back-to-the-wall resilience produced a second Test classic in succession even if they had evidently exhausted their huge reserves of good fortune in the previous match.

As in the 3^rd Test, Australia bossed much of the game. Or should I say Steve Smith did. Apart from Marnus Labuschagne and Tim Paine, the visitors’ batting has been abysmal. At Old Trafford, Stuart Broad’s opening spells twice accounted for openers Harris and Warner for the total of just 19 runs, the latter bagging a pair. 

Twice, Smith has strode onto the pitch with the innings under eighth overs old and twice he has flummoxed England’s attack with his mix of quirky mannerisms, mutterings and manic walkabouts, interspersed with coruscating cricket shots, piercing the field brilliantly. In the first innings he punctured Stokes’ puffed-up chest superbly, and Jofra Archer went wicketless for 97 as the former Aussie captain executed his third Ashes double-century.

On Friday, I watched incredulously as Rory Burns somehow avoided not only getting an edge to the pacemen but also dislocating every joint in his body as part of his peculiar batting stance, but he and Joe Root put on a stubborn 141 for the third wicket to keep the match very much alive. When Josh Hazlewood’s seamers did for both men in successive overs, England’s white-ball specialists couldn’t keep it going and only a belligerent extra-cover drive by Buttler prevented the follow-on.

Broad and Archer did give the Lancashire crowd something to roar about on Saturday afternoon but that man Smith steadied the ship, reaching 82 – his lowest score so far! – before skying Leach into the hands of Stokes. The declaration wasn’t long in coming, and Paine set the home nation the challenge of scoring 383 or surviving three-and-a-bit sessions for a draw.

England did neither, but it was mighty close. It didn’t look that way at stumps, Pat Cummins’ third ball inducing a Burns leading edge followed by the perfect delivery to bowl Root. And so the fifth day was all about the Dunkirk spirit. Wickets fell regularly and, apart from Joe Denly, nobody got anywhere near 50. That didn’t matter. It was all about eating up the overs and, once Somerset heroes Overton and Leach found themselves together in the middle, wasting as much time as possible. They must have used every spare pair of gloves in Manchester and Leach’s lenses were wiped so often that the glass would have been wafer thin. The boozed-up spectators cheered each defensive stroke, every lengthy pause, but the frustrating tactics proved insufficient in the face of superb bowling by Cummins and Hazlewood especially. When the latter finally trapped Overton lbw to end his near-three-hour resistance for 21, the review was purely cosmetic. It was plumb, and Australia had not only won the match but also ensured England could not wrest the Ashes back from their clutches. 

You have to say the Aussies have deserved it. England have shown faith in their World Cup-winning stars but, apart from Stokes and Archer, they haven’t really demonstrated their red-ball credentials. The winners also clearly have their own problems. Sooner or later, Smith will be out cheaply, leaving the weight on someone else’s shoulders. He only lost his wicket in this match to an audacious reverse sweep off Root and a mistimed slog when well set. David Warner finds himself in an uncharacteristic slump and neither Bancroft, Harris or Khawaja have fared much better. 

Will The Oval witness wholesale changes? In the week when the cricket world bade farewell to the Pakistani pioneer of 1990s leg-spin, Abdul Qadir, perhaps Joe Denly will open the bowling. As the home side, England could call up a whole raft of young replacements. I just hope they leave Somerset players alone and draft half of the Essex team so we have a chance of success in the County Championship! Whatever. Another exciting Test match  finish would do very nicely.

Ashes 2019 – Smith back on song as Aussies win a rollercoaster

Well, I didn’t see that coming! On the eve of the 2019 Ashes series, or indeed by lunch on the first day, none of the probable scripts would have told the story of what actually prevailed at Edgbaston. This was supposed to be the summer of England, buoyed by an historic World Cup success, carrying their confidence through to smash an Australia side only just welcoming back their banned trio of batsmen. Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft would surely wilt under the pressure and Joe Root would follow Eoin Morgan to Buckingham Palace for his knighthood. On the basis of the First Test I suggest PM Johnson and the Queen had better hold fire for the moment.

The final day collapse and consequent drubbing should not come as a complete surprise. At Headingley thirty years ago, the Aussies arrived without a strong reputation, yet bowled out David Gower’s men on the last day for a 211-run victory which laid the foundation not only for a series win but also a whole decade of world domination. Two years ago in Brisbane, the then-captain Steve Smith scored 141 not out in the first innings en route to a ten-wicket victory. Six months later he was cast into the wilderness for his role in the sandpaper controversy in Cape Town, the last time he played first-class cricket until this week.

At 112-8 last Thursday, Australia looked dead and buried. However, despite the chorus of boos and predictable beer-fuelled taunts with sandpaper and Smith-in-tears masks, the restored Smith was resolute. Peter Siddle and Nathan Lyon kept him company through the afternoon as their side more than doubled their score. Until he was bowled by Broad, Smith had demonstrated the art of a Test batsman to perfection. And yet 284 all out was hardly a match-winning score. 

At stumps on day two, it was Rory Burns soaking up the adulation and some well-meaning handshakes from the opposition after his battling maiden Test century. Even on Saturday evening, England were still on top but Sunday was no day of rest for England’s fielders. They were run ragged by Steve Smith (again), fellow centurion Matthew Wade and then James Pattinson’s six-hit salvo. The final day saw England echo Australia’s woes on the first but this time there was no Steve Smith to salvage the situation. Roy, Denly, Buttler and Bairstow are hardly the types to knuckle down, and Nathan Lyon was extracting formidable turn from the pitch. Cummins’ short-pitched deliveries did the rest. Game over.

Love him or loathe him, you have to admire Steve Smith. His batting style looked more unorthodox than ever but he played superbly, punching cover drives to pile on the runs or shuffle outside off stump to frustrate Ben Stokes with a nudge behind square. In one of those freaky statistics I love about cricket, Smith became the first man in Test history to be dismissed twice in the 140s. Yes, England were a bowler light after Jimmy Anderson’s early breakdown but even with a fully-fit Anderson or Jofra Archer firing them in, I’m not sure the outcome would have been any different. 

It was an extraordinary Test match. I doubt that Tim Paine’s side will emulate Allan Border’s Class of ‘89 nor that England will resort to picking four different captains as they did that year. However, as with Steve Waugh three decades ago, the home nation has to work out how to dismiss Steve Smith, and hope that Warner, Khawaja and co don’t also find their form. Otherwise it could be a long hot summer and the World Cup fever will feel like a distant memory.

Ryan Harris Loses the Battle of Wounded Knee

In recent days I've been frustrated by the disruptive presence on the ESPN Cricinfo website of a large advert proclaiming the virtues of a treatment for painful joints. A painful reminder, too, of Ryan Harris' lengthy battle against his own right knee injury; a battle in which he has now conceded defeat.

There aren't many bowlers in the current game who can boast a tally of 100+ Test wickets with a sub-24 average, which makes Ryan Harris pretty special. He played only 27 Tests for Australia yet he himself admitted that was 27 more than he expected. Let's face it, he is one of those late developers, only making his ODI debut at the age of 29, and in the baggy green for five-day cricket a year later.

A total of 51 internationals across all formats in six years is a paltry number these days, but I'm sure that a fit Ryan Harris would have doubled that tally, so important was he to the Aussie attack marshalled by Ponting, Clarke or Smith. His big bustling frame belied his skill as a fast-medium swing merchant who could not only take wickets but keep top batsmen very quiet. Just over half his 113 Test victims were English, and most were outside Australia, notably in England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.

The critics may say that he would have been useless in India, but I counter that he would probably have performed better there than Indian seamers have done in Australia! His Test debut came in Wellington in March 2010, when his six wickets contributed to a ten-wicket hammering of Daniel Vettori's New Zealand. The Sydney contest with India proved to be his swansong, where he was rather less influential. He was left out of the World Cup squad in an attempt to prolong his career at least as far as the 2015 Ashes. Sadly the Kent warm-up match proved to be his last first-class appearance before doctors ruled him out of the series. A cracked tibia was the medical verdict and not even Ryan Harris can bowl with a broken leg! At 35, he clearly felt he had nothing left to fight for, and called it a day.

He could also give the ball a fearsome whack, and boasted three Test 50s to his name. I saw him live only once, at The Oval in 2013, where he thumped 33 in 27 balls as part of a late-order blitz following a long rain delay and Steve Smith's first century. He then proceeded to bowl several consecutive maidens to Alastair Cook. My favourite Ryan Harris statistic is his T20 international scoring rate of 200. OK, he faced just one delivery, from which he scored two runs, but a stat is a stat!

In these times of vicious sledging and unfriendly relations, with fast bowlers particularly prone to indiscretions, Ryan Harris stood out as a good bloke with the right attitude. Maybe it was the knowledge that his career was teetering on the brink as a result of his recurring knee problems but he won lots of friends around the world. WE all love to hate Mitch Johnson and others, but Harris earned a great deal of respect wherever he played.

Starc and Hazelwood starred in the Aussies' victory over Essex this week and Peter Siddle remains an important ingredient in the bowling mix. Pat Cummins has been called up, ironic given his own injuries when a teenage prodigy. Nearly four years after his first and only Test, Cummins incredibly has only six first-class appearances to his name. At least he is only 22 but if he is still playing at the age of 35 and claims a Test bowling average comparable to Ryan Harris, he will do well.

Whatever the outcome of the Ashes this summer, Ryan Harris will definitely be missed.