Statistics alone do not provide a picture as sharp as a flat-screen television, and that is one strong reason why a best test XI like this—for the year 2008—could vary in its nature and content from a cricket fan to cricket fan, from country to country.
I have tried my best not to bring in the purported bias in this team and have refrained from getting personal favourites.
Yet, there may be some who may not agree with my choice of four Indians in the team, where as the others would have definite issues with my non-inclusion of Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh
But as I say, ‘to each his own!’
In fact, talking of Tendulkar and Harbhajan, both had a reasonable 2008, and yet I am not too sure whether it was good enough to include them in the top 11 cricketers of the year.
What I am definitely sure of is that my openers would be none other than the Delhi duo of Virender Sehwag' and 'Gautam Gambhir'. This space would run short for elucidating the reasons for this choice, but it is a no-brainer that Sehwag and Gambhir have had a smashing year. It has not only been their statistics, but also the manner in which the runs have been obtained that has put most of the opponents in a state of quandary—and quite often, Team India on the road to victory—which stands them apart from the crowd.
Both have not only got their runs in a manner so much akin to quicksilver, but also the fact that their running between the wickets has been of the top draw, and consistency has been the name of their game.
Graeme Smith’s batting constitutes only a part of his resounding success story this year—his leadership qualities been the other—but it is enough to land him a spot on the team. Overcoming his woes against the left-arm bowlers, he scored a whopping 1,656 runs at an average of 72 this year—and had it not been for the Sehwag-Gambhir pair’s inseparable habits, Smith would have had made it to the top as an opener.
There was much more to Kevin Pietersen than his unconventional switch-hits that had even the MCC scratching their heads in puzzlement, and he displayed that with a panache of a true number four batsman. After a shoddy display of captaincy by Michael Vaughan, the mantle had to pass on to Pietersen, and he did not disappoint even the worst of his critics by posting five successive wins against South Africa—one in tests and four in ODIs.
In doing so, he maintained his career average of almost 51, and just nudges out Tendulkar from the number four position because of his higher fitness levels and ability to feature in the matches on a more consistent basis.
Hashim Amla, the anchor, is my number five. His inclusion is based on two factors, the runs that he amassed in 2008 at a 50-plus average, and my gut feel that he is the one player to look out for.
I, for one, think that he was the most improved batsman of the year, and his journey from being an almost strokeless wonder to South Africa’s new stabiliser—having taken over the mantle from Jacques Kallis—makes him a desirable commodity in my team.
I have decided to go ahead with five frontline batsmen, and have M.S. Dhoni
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