Harsha Bhogle Picks His Test XI Of The Year; Includes 3 Indians
Cricket analyst and commentator Harsha Bhogle selected his best Test playing XI of the calendar year. The team included three Indians and two Pakistanis, along with one each from West Indies, New Zealand, Australia, England, and Sri Lanka.
For the opening roles, Rohit Sharma and Dimuth Karunaratne were chosen because of their fantastic performances. Rohit has scored 906 runs in 11 matches while Karunaratne has 902 in 7 games.
“When I saw him (Dimuth Karunaratne) first, I thought there is something about Karunraratne. I thought Rohit Sharma was a standout opening batsman this year, always good in home conditions, but in England this year, he was in a different league,” Harsha said on Cricbuzz.
Australian batting talisman and current No.1 Test batsman, Marnus Labuschagne, England captain, Joe Root, Pakistan batter, Fawad Alam, and Indian wicket-keeper, Rishabh Pant filled out the middle-order.
“He (Labuschagne) is just in fantastic form. His numbers are very good. He got runs against India and England, so Labuschagne at three was easy. The easiest, of course, was Joe Root. When he played well, England were competitive, when he didn’t play well, there was nothing to look forward to.”
“Had a very peculiar stance, you looked at him and said, ‘right, how he is going to score runs’?. He made three hundreds in this year, and it was a joy watching Fawad Alam bat. I’ve gone with Rishabh Pant at number six. I went with him because he played game-changing innings, whether it was almost pulling it off in Sydney, that fantastic inning in Brisbane, then he got a 90 and a hundred against England, and his wicketkeeping also went to another level,” Harsha added.
The lower order and bowling attack in Harsha Bhogle’s list
The all-rounder duo of Jason Holder and Ravichandran Ashwin filled up the No.7 & 8 slots. As for the pace attack, Shaheen Afridi, Anrich Nortje, and New Zealand’s latest sensation, Kyle Jamieson were the ones that Bhogle went with.
“I looked for seam bowling all-rounders, and I couldn’t look further than Jason Holder. Number eight is my spinner, and there was one spinner who was better than everybody else. I’ve gone with Ravichandran Ashwin at number eight.”
“Shaheen Shah Afridi is in fantastic form; the left-armer swings the ball, he has got a very decent pace. I went with Nortje (Anrich Nortje) out and out fast bowler, so I’ve got a left-hander and an out-and-out fast bowler. Jamieson will add depth to the batting, bounce that he gets, wonderful control over length, swings a little bit,” Bhogle mentioned.
Harsha Bhogle’s Test playing XI of the year:
Rohit Sharma, Dimuth Karunaratne, Marnus Labuschagne, Joe Root, Fawad Alam, Rishabh Pant, Jason Holder, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Anrich Nortje, Kyle Jamieson.
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Tagged:
Harsha Bhogle Joe Root Kyle Jamieson Marnus Labuschagne Ravichandran Ashwin Rishabh Pant Rohit Sharma
