What’s the Story?
As the year of 2016 came to an end, we saw a lot of former cricketers and experts pick out their favourite players of the year in all the three formats of the game and compiling them into a team. Renowned Indian cricket expert Harsha Bhogle joined in the trend and picked out his Test XI for the year that went by.
He picked three Englishmen, two Australians, two Indians, two South Africans, one West Indian, and one Sri Lankan in his team, which would be captained by Virat Kohli.
In case you didn’t know...
One of the most loved commentators in India, Harsha Bhogle was controversially dropped from the IPL commentary team in April due to alleged criticism received from Indian cricketers and officials with regards to his commentary in the World T20 held in India last year. Despite fans being outraged about the decision to remove him from the commentary team, Harsha has not yet made a comeback to the commentary box yet.
On September 22, he joined Cricbuzz as their official “Voice of Cricket” and fans get to witness him in a different avatar on their website, and on various social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter where he constantly answers various questions asked to him.
The heart of the matter
Harsha decided to pick West Indies batsman Kraigg Brathwaite and Pakistan’s sensation Azhar Ali to open the batting for his Test XI of 2016. Despite West Indies not fairing well last year, Harsha felt that Brathwaite showed tremendous character and was the shining light for the Caribbean outfit.
He had no trouble when it came to choosing the middle-order batsmen as he picked three out of the "Fab 4” namely England’s Joe Root, Indian Test captain Virat Kohli, and Australian captain Steve Smith. Ben Stokes and Ravichandran Ashwin were picked as the all-rounders in his side.
He picked another Englishman in the form of Jonny Bairstow to take up the role of wicketkeeper-batsman ahead of South Africa’s Quinton De Kock. There was no hesitation when he picked Mitchell Starc, Rangana Herath, and youngster Kagiso Rabada in the bowling department to complete his team.
What’s next?
After an eventful year, fans will be looking forward to all the cricketing action in 2017 as well. India’s campaign is set to begin against England in a 3 match ODI series from January 15th after which they will come up against Bangladesh and Australia in a series of test matches. The much awaited ICC Champions Trophy will begin on June 1, 2017, after the glamorous Indian Premier League in the months of April and May.
Sportskeeda’s take
There was one surprise exclusion from Harsha’s Test XI of 2016. Australia’s David Warner, who had a spectacular year with the bat probably should have been picked instead of Brathwaite. The Australian amassed 748 runs in 11 matches at an average of 41.55 with two centuries and two half-centuries to his name in comparison to Brathwaite’s 613 runs in 8 matches.
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