Aug 24 2009
Top Test Players in 2008
2008 was a windfall year for test cricket. On the one hand there was the IPL, which altogether set doubts aplenty about the future of the longer version of the game, so much so that the ICC had to rethink strategies regarding cricket’s future. But on the other hand, as the 2008-09 season began in earnest, the players clad in white flannels gave their everything on the field, to once again uphold the sanctity of the five day game. Plus the wonderful run chases only added to the excitement of it all.
Naturally then, with some amazing cricket played over five days across different parts of the world, the year gone by has thrown up some names. Names that belong to players who will be remembered as ones who touched the peaks of their performances, justifying their potential and laying down a marker on which they will be forever judged and remembered by. Here are the top test players of the year gone by.
TOP 5 BATSMEN:
1. Graeme Smith: The South African captain led from the front as he saw his team’s stock rise from challengers to world beaters. They went on a spree of nine consecutive unbeaten test series and at the time of writing, were just winding up their tenth one Down Under, having beaten Australia. And it is no surprise that Smith has been hailed as the architect-in-chief of this success. Not only has he led his troops with tactical acumen and street smart guile on the field, his 1656 runs at an average of 72 from 15 matches at the top of the batting order highlight his worth to his team.
Smith recorded six tons in the calendar year and the first was as early as only the second match of the year as he stroked 147 against the West Indies in the third test at Durban. It helped that he was already in the groove by then, having hit more than a hundred runs in the second test as well. The weak Bangladeshi attack only saw to it that he continued his rich vein of form in an important year. But even they couldn’t have fathomed what was to come, as along with Neil McKenzie, Smith broke the long standing record of Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy for the first wicket, as the duo put up 415. His 232 here was the highest score of his calendar year.
Onto more serious challenges then in India, although he didn’t record a hundred, he played a couple of crucial innings, especially the first one in Chennai where he, again with McKenzie laid a good foundation to a huge score. The thing about Smith is that if he is not getting too many with the bat, he makes up with his leadership skills and it showed as South Africa drew India at home. The tour to England was his second tough test on the trot but somehow the Poms bring out the best in him without fail. Two hundreds and a seldom failure meant that he helped his team go one better than their last trip there, this time actually winning the test series. By the way, he also recorded his only duck of the year in England as well.
A century against Bangladesh at home fine tuned his batting for the ferocious tour of Australia in December. Unlike his past visit, Smith was mellower this time round and it showed on the field in the first test at Perth as South Africa chased down a scintillating 414; his 108 laying the base of this brave run chase. And he rounded up the year as he started it, adding more than a hundred runs to his tally in the second match at MCG, 137 to be precise.
2. Virender Sehwag: The ‘Nawab of Najafgarh’ or the ‘King of Multan’, whichever way you like it, made his long impending comeback to the Indian team in 2008 and showed every one what we were missing while he was gone. Having spent most of 2007 in the wilderness, he had been finally selected for the Australian tour on the insistence of then Indian skipper Anil Kumble. And how well did it pay off!
He didn’t play the first two matches as Yuvraj Singh was preferred over him, but come the third Test, his presence just couldn’t be ignored anymore. And he showed amply, just why. He played a steady role in the victory at Perth but the changes he had incorporated to his batting away from the spotlight were first seen at Adelaide as he stroked a 63 in the first innings and then played a match saving 151 in the second to draw the game for India. Yes, Sehwag had calmed down a bit.
What’s more he even started valuing his wicket realizing fully that with a longer stay at the crease, he could be even more devastating. And this is exactly what happened as he strode into the record books with a second triple hundred, this time on home soil, a 319 against South Africa at Chennai. His innings was the sole reason why India didn’t lose the first test and although he didn’t score big again in the series, he had pretty much done his part atleast for the time being.
The famed Indian batting line-up struggled in Sri Lanka but that trip was to mark the rise of a new opening partnership that can be easily termed to be the best in the game today. Sehwag and his partner in crime Gautam Gambhir stood tall amongst the ruins in Lanka. The second test was a special high as they were the architects of the Indian win, with Sehwag hitting a double ton; his 201 runs accounting for more than sixty percent of the Indian total.
Sehwag hit 1462 runs in total throughout the year at an average of 56.23, with three hundreds and six half centuries. The ton in Sri Lanka was his last one in the year for he failed to reach the three figure mark in the six tests against Australia and England. However, that doesn’t mean that he didn’t play a part in the memorable winter for the Indian team. He improved his showing in the second innings especially, once again displaying the new side to his play. He came close in Mohali and Nagpur, falling in the nineties on both occasions and then his swashbuckling 83 at Chennai against England set up the huge run chase of a 370-plus target for the Indian team.
3. Ricky Ponting: The fact that he has had a horrendous year as captain of the Australian team will be hit him somewhat less because he has been able to ward off the critics atleast off himself, letting his willow do the talking. And that was pretty much the story for him in the twelve months gone by as he concentrated more on himself than his team notching up 1182 runs in 14 matches at an average of 47.28.
The year didn’t begin that well for him as he had a lot of other things on his mind as the Indian team was running amok on and off the field at the same time. The saga at Sydney had boiled down to a defeat in Perth and only a fitting reply from the bat could sooth his senses as he notched up 140 in the Adelaide test to put India under a tremendous amount of pressure. He carried this form to the West Indies where he scored 158 in the very first test innings at Kingston, but what should have been an even richer haul of runs, and tons, fell silent as he managed to get starts but failed to convert each of them into anything substantial. His next best scored in the Windies was 65 and he arrived in India, where he averaged 32 before, with doubts in his mind.
Greg Chappell’s guidance helped him tide over the uncertainties in his mind, as he notched up a first test ton, 123, on Indian soil on a first day pitch at Bangalore. But again, the Indians weighed heavy on his mind as he struggled to get going after that and only crossed fifty one other time in the remaining seven innings. A string of poor scores followed as he was unable to get his form going against the lowly New Zealand attack, home conditions not helping either. And he was under real pressure when he was out to a duck in the first innings at Perth against South Africa. But as is his wont, he kept up the way the year had gone by for him, plundering 200 runs in the second test at Melbourne, scoring 101 in the first innings and following it up with 99 in the second. He missed out on scoring a ton in each innings of a test by a whisker, a feat he has achieved no less than three times previously.
4. Hashim Amla: With 1161 runs at an average of 52.77 in 15 test matches, 2008 will be the year that Amla will always remember, when he came of age as a test player. The potential was always there when he first came onto the international scene. His ability to play pace as well as spin with ease off the front and back foot were enough reasons to groom him into the side but everything happened too fast for him. Consequently he went back to domestic cricket and etched out the gremlins from his mind, and returned a more complete player.
He was always made to hover up and down the batting order and this was more because while he had the potential to excel as a top order batsman, the line-up already had a fine number three batsman in Jacques Kallis and it was very tough to dislodge him. But where the story started taking bad turns for Kallis, it turned upwards for Amla. All through the year, Kallis has struggled with form and this only saw Amla sent up the pecking order at number three more and more. And how well he has used it!
He began the year not fully confident as he was just on his return to the team, especially against West Indies at home. But once he reached Bangladesh, his ability to bat on the slower pitches came in handy as he readied himself for the tour to India. Here he showed his mettle in the first test at Chennai, scoring 159 in the first innings to first take his team to a position of strength and then followed it up with another 81 in the second to see to it that they maintain the upper hand. He scored a fighting half century in Kanpur but it wasn’t enough to stave off defeat in that test. The tour to England followed and he began well and with a purpose, scoring an unbeaten 104 at Lord’s but then fizzled out a bit as his form fell off the charts, scoring only one other fifty that too in the lost game at The Oval in his last innings there.
He re-assured himself in the home series against Bangladesh that he was good enough for a place in the side as he stroked a century and a half century in only the two innings that South Africa batted in the series before flying to Australia. Although he failed to get big scores in the first two tests there, he made sizeable contributions to the victories in both the matches.
5. Gautam Gambhir: Had he played an equal number of matches as other top batsmen in the list, there is no telling how many runs he would have ended up scoring. Already in 8 test matches, he notched up 1134 runs at an astonishing average of 70.87.
Gambhir played his first test of the year only in the series against Sri Lanka and by that time, his team mates had already played six tests in the months gone by. Obviously then he had some catching up to do and he didn’t disappoint. He was in good form in the limited editions of the game and brought it to the test arena as well. He was consistently amongst the runs in Lanka, notching up three fifties in six innings and was easily the second best batsman in the team there after Sehwag as the seniors struggled to get going. In fact, it was his partnership with his Delhi team mate at the top that helped India equal the series in Galle.
Back home, he began with purpose against Australia, first scoring a fifty in the first innings and then going one better in the second innings, getting 104 as he help set up a massive 340 run win over the Aussies. Then he went one better, spurred by playing in front of his home crowd at Delhi, as he stroked a masterful career best knock of 206. His stock now at its highest, he remained true to his form against England as well rounding up the year in an amazing display of batting. First, his half century set up the historic Indian chase at Chennai and then he repeated his feat at Mohali, the one against Australia from earlier this year. It seemed as though he had indeed taken a liking towards the PCA ground as only this time, he hit 179 in the first innings and then almost matched it with 97 in the second.
TOP 5 BOWLERS:
1. Dale Steyn: If it was Graeme Smith in the batting charts, then another South African dominates the bowling charts and it clearly spells out why the Proteas are dominating test cricket at the moment. Steyn, with 74 wickets in 13 matches at 20 apiece, has been one of the most important kegs in the South African wheel that is now constantly moving towards the top spot in the world rankings. He began the year terrorizing the West Indies with his pace at home. Eight wickets in Cape Town and then another seven in the Durban test spelt quick end to the Caribbean hopes in the series. But how would he shore up to the challenge of bowling in the sub-continent remained to be seen.
And he didn’t let his team down as he scalped 13 wickets in two tests in Bangladesh, the highlight being 7 for 66 in the second test. India posed a different threat though and that was the real test for him. Eight wickets in Ahmedabad where he made full use of the juice in the track won South Africa a test match in India and take a 1-0 lead in the series. Although they could only draw the rubber, it was proven beyond doubt that Steyn was indeed the new fast bowling threat throughout the world.
England though provided an anti climax to the highs in India as he was forced to miss the last three tests due to injury. Even then he had played his part already, taking eight wickets in three innings, bowling his team to victory in Lord’s before retiring hurt in Leeds. 12 wickets at home against Bangladesh rejuvenated him for the toughest test of his career yet which was to come in the form of Australia. Success had long impeded South Africa Down Under and Steyn, alongwith a couple of other players, held the key to unlocking that success.
He picked four wickets in Perth as the hosts lost the first test but it was his performance in the second that indeed marked him as the new ‘White Lightning’. Swinging the ball at a fast pace ala Allan Donald, he scalped ten wickets in the Boxing Day test at MCG to get a firm grip on the series. An unlike Donald, he can bat a bit too, as it was his partnership with Duminy in Melbourne that turned the tide in his team’s favour.
2. Harbhajan Singh: If you look at the wickets column, then his 63 sticks from 13 matches at 31.53 put him at number two in the top five bowlers of 2008. But then there is also circumspection in one’s tone as to the mode in which he got those wickets. The judgement should be out only when a bowler has consistently taken three or more wickets in an innings and in his case, he has done that no less than 13 times in 23 innings this past year. Add to it the fact that he is miles ahead of any other spinner and this then proves that he has had a decent year.
Five wickets in two tests in Australia showed that he is still some way off to regaining his best form on away tours, but once back home he was back amongst the wickets. He started with five in the first innings against South Africa in Chennai and then took three more in the second. Eight wickets at Kanpur helped India level the series as he ended with 19 wickets for his efforts. He then took four wickets each in his first three innings in Sri Lanka, the last two helping India clinch the Galle test. He took five more in the last test even as India went down 2-1 in the series. His consistent run of from continued against Australia as he snapped another 14 against Australia and then rounded off the year against England with another rich haul of 15 wickets.
Clearly he was there and there about in each of the series that India played in the year. But what should irk him the most is his average where each wicket costs him 31 runs apiece which is not that great for a spinner of his class. Much of it is to blame on the fact that he starts bowling short and quick as soon as he is hit for runs and this is one area he could really improve upon.
3. Mitchell Johnson: 63 wickets in 14 matches as 29 apiece meant that the young left arm fast bowler finally fulfilled his potential and rose to lead the attack in a year that was full of woes for his team. He enjoyed playing against India at home, taking thirteen wickets in three tests as other Australian bowlers struggled alongside. West Indies though proved to be a tougher task as three tests yielded only ten wickets, the pitches having lost much of their juice in recent times.
The next tour to India should also have gone the same way, for rookie fast bowlers don’t have the best of times in the sub-continent. But he proved his detractors wrong and saying that he was his team’s best bowler in the series would be an under-statement. He was actually their only proven wicket taker with clever mix of pace and length as he ended the series with 13 wickets.
Back home against New Zealand, he fine tuned his skills with 14 wickets in two matches, to prepare for the all important home series against South Africa. He took his first five wicket haul of the year at Brisbane in the first test but his summer had just about started. He routed the Proteas in the very first match at Perth taking 8 for 61 but his team still couldn’t muster enough effort to win the match. Ever since losing that test with the visitors chasing 414, he seems to have lost his confidence as the wickets almost dried up.
4. Brett Lee: A lot more was expected of Lee than just 57 wickets in 14 matches, especially since he had been handed the responsibility of leading the attack. But even he would commit that he fell short by the standards that he sets for himself.
He started well against the Indians at Sydney, picking five wickets in the very first innings of the year and continued with his rich vein of form, picking 13 more wickets in the next three tests. He took this form with him to the West Indies where he picked another rich haul of 16 wickets.
But this is when it all dried up for him and his personal life became more important than his actions on the field. Obviously the problems off the pitch were affecting his game as he had a torrid in India. So much so that his captain lost faith in him at times and turned to part time bowlers to deliver the goods. Only seven wickets in the series hurt him and his team immensely as they went down 2-0. He showed signs of a turn around against New Zealand as he picked 12 wickets in two tests but again the South African batting line-up exposed his frailties as he picked just one wicket in two year-ending tests against them.
5. Makhaya Ntini: He played a strong hand along with Dale Steyn in the rise of South Africa in the last twelve months as the duo hunted in pairs. Ntini picked 54 wickets in 15 games to play the complete foil to Steyn’s showing.
He bowled within his limitations, being on slower legs than his younger team mates. He made a conservative start to the year with just six wickets against West Indies and then five against Bangladesh in two tests each. And then in India, while Steyn bowled his heart out, Ntini toiled hard on dry pitches and ended with ten wickets from three matches. His support role in Ahmedabad was especially commendable as both he and Steyn shot the Indians out for less than hundred and scripted a South African win.
This set the tone for the England tour, where Steyn withdrew due to injury. It was then that Ntini took over the mantle of strike bowler again and rocked the English with 14 wickets in the series including a five wicket haul at The Oval, helping his team win a series in England after a long time.
He prepared for the Australia series with 11 wickets at home against Bangladesh and it seemed that the Proteas were taking a very potent attack Down Under. With eight wickets in two tests against Australia, he played second fiddle to Steyn but played a crucial role nevertheless in their series win over the world champions.
TOP 5 ALL-ROUNDERS:
1. Jacques Kallis: although he had a horrible run last year, he still found time enough to be the best all rounder there is. His 665 runs and 29 wickets surely make him a candidate then.
As it seems, he excelled with both the bat and ball, but not both at the same time and this explains the patchy performance. A half century against West Indies was accentuated by a five wicket haul against Bangladesh. His 132 at Ahmedabad still rankles Indian minds as they remember the crushing loss inflicted on the home side. Then the dry spell really started in earnest as he could contribute a highest score of 64 and just ten wickets in a five match test series against England.
The story repeated against Bangladesh at home but then it would have been foolish to go to Australia without a player like him. And this is where he came back into his own as he hit two half centuries in the first two tests to play his part in his team’s historic win.
2. Daniel Vettori: The New Zealand captain stood tall amongst the ruins of his country’s cricket in the year 2008. Thanks to the exodus of players to ICL, the Kiwis have suffered a lot and it has shown in their results over the year as it was clear that the team had taken two steps backward instead of taking one forward.
Nevertheless, Vettori played out his heart as he notched up 672 runs and took 54 wickets in 14 matches to desperately up the ante for New Zealand. He was in great form with the bat as the year began, scoring three half centuries against Bangladesh and England and his bowling began to take shape as the year progressed.
He was instrumental to his team putting up a fight on the tour to England with two more fifties and 12 wickets to his name and when the Kiwis landed in Bangladesh next, he took his bowling to another level. 14 wickets on that trip meant that New Zealand were able to win a hard fought contest as they returned home to face a depleted Australia who had just lost to Bangla-neighbours India. But that series was a total loss for him and his side as Australia began to prepare for the tougher challenges ahead beating them squarely.
3. Andrew Symonds: Symo had a nasty year by all standards. It began with the monkey gate fiasco and it continued to rumble in his mind till the year ended. Naturally then his performances on the field suffered as a result and he was not the same force that Australia had in their middle order, and yes his team missed him sorely.
He began the year in Sydney surviving on umpire errors and went on to make a big ton and followed it up with two more fifties against the Indians. The after effects of the debacle with the Indians wasn’t showing up as yet as he struck three more fifties in the tests against West Indies but then a fishing trip cost him his ticket to India where he missed four tests and his team missed his all round abilities. And he hasn’t been the same player since. He came back against New Zealand and South Africa at home but failed to make any lasting impressions finishing the year with 762 runs and 10 wickets.
4. Stuart Broad: This young English kid knows that he has a legacy to keep up with and he gives his hundred percent every time he is on the field. Though many feel that he is yet to do justice to his talent, given time he ought to improve on the 371 runs and 25 wickets he got last year.
He batted at Lord’s for his highest score of the year against South Africa, 76 runs and followed it up with one more fifty against the same opposition later at Leeds. His best figures of 3 for 44 also came against the South Africans at the Oval against who he played the bulk of his test matches this year.
5. Shakib ul Hasan: In a team ravaged by inconsistency and then the riches of the ICL, this young man provided the brightest spark as he hit 414 runs and took 30 wickets in 8 matches to carry the burden of Bangladesh cricket alone at times.
His best knock of the year was actually his last test innings of the year, 96 against Sri Lanka at Dhaka as Bangladesh attempted to chase an impossible 500 runs plus target. His other good brilliant performance with the bat was while making 71 against the Kiwis at Chittagong earlier in the summer. Prior to that innings he had first rattled them with the ball taking a career best seven wicket haul and then took three more five or more wicket hauls in the year. But his best performance with the ball had to be his 11 wickets against South Africa in hostile conditions.
