by After 32 Tests, 33,408 runs, 1,016 wickets, it is finally time for the 10th annual Guardian Men’s Test XI of the year. This year’s selectors were Vic Marks, Ali Martin, Rob Smyth, Tanya Aldred, Taha Hashim, Geoff Lemon, Adam Collins, Emma John, Tim de Lisle, Daniel Gallan and Andy Bull. Unfortunately, some teams (South Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh) played so little this year that it was difficult to pick any of their players, which seems like a worrying sign for how the game is going, but for now…
1) Usman Khawaja
1,168 races with an average of 55
It would take a hard heart not to enjoy watching the final years of Khawaja’s career after all his ups and downs along the way. He has been better than ever since he returned to Test cricket in 2022. This year he made three monumental hundreds against South Africa in Sydney, India in Ahmedabad and England in Edgbaston. There were six other fifties between them, making him the leading run-scorer in the format this year, and the only unanimous selection in this XI.
2) Rohit Sharma
540 runs at 49
Two years into his tenure, it still looks like Rohit Sharma needs to put his stamp on the captaincy. His batting, however, made the same great impression as always. He also had a tough job, as eight of his 11 innings came against Australia. He made a brilliant century against them on a rotating pitch in Nagpur when no one else in the top six of either side passed fifty, and he scored another ton on the tour against the West Indies in July. He did it in style, hitting as many sixes by himself as Khawaja, Zak Crawley and David Warner managed between them.
3) Kane Williamson
696 runs at 58
Williamson stepped away from the captaincy at the start of the year, although he already looked so modest that it was a surprise to discover there was room left behind him to retire. In the ranks, he sometimes had a hard time getting in, but when he did he was as effective as ever. He won the man-of-the-match award for his 132nd in a famous one-run victory after England did the same to New Zealand in Wellington, then scored an unbeaten hundred and then another back-to-back double against Sri Lanka. and culminated with another century against Bangladesh in Sylhet.
4) Joe Root
787 runs at 66, 8 wickets at an average of 18
People who meet Root for the first time are always surprised to find that he is so tall. He is about 6ft 2ins, a height that is completely at odds with the mischief of a man who thinks it is a good idea to try and play a reverse ramp shot from the first ball of his innings against Pat Cummins. Root scored two good centuries this year, against New Zealand in Wellington and Australia in Edgbaston. And while he was a little less effective than he used to be when he was destroying all those hundreds of people in the dog days of his captaincy, he had never been more entertaining to watch.
5) Travis Head
679 runs at 42
At the end of the year, Head was named Australia’s joint vice-captain in what seemed a clear sign of his growing importance to the team. His batting may be a little more skittish than some of the great Australian middle-order players who have preceded him, but he is irrepressible when things hold up. And if the bowlers had some success bowling short against him, he still got plenty of runs while doing so, especially when he scored his 163rd run-a-ball in the World Test Championship final.
6) Ravindra Jadeja
281 runs in 35, 33 wickets in 19
India ask a lot of Jadeja, picking him as low as No. 6 in the order and often using him as their only player. But he is up to it all. He tore Australia apart in the spring, when he took 22 wickets at 18 in four Tests, including a career-best seven for 42 in Delhi. In that same game he also made a crucial four-hour 70. He played it differently in the World Test Championship final a couple of months later, when he rattled off a run-out 48 to accompany his three for 58 in the second innings. His fielding was also as magnificent as ever.
7) Lorcan Tucker
351 runs to 44, 7 dismissals
The first Irishman to make the Guardian Team of the Year, Tucker only played four Tests but made almost as many runs in them as Alex Carey did in twelve for Australia. Tucker only played 19 first-class games and said in June that he felt like he was “learning Test cricket on the job”. But he learns quickly. At Mirpur, he scored his first century after arriving when his team was 51 for 5. He followed it up with 80 in a tough defeat against Sri Lanka at Galle, and 44 against England at Lord’s.
8) Ravichandran Ashwin
142 runs at 24, 40 wickets at 16
The world’s best Test bowler did not even make India’s XI for the World Test Championship final, a decision that could well have cost his team the title. He didn’t even have to look back to see it. Ashwin took 25 wickets at 18 each against Australia in the spring. He was more economical than anyone more incisive than him, and more incisive than anyone more economical. One of the game’s great problem solvers, he should be seen as one of the best to ever play the game, if only he could figure out how to maintain his place on the team.
9) Pat Cummins (c)
225 runs at 16, 32 wickets at 33
The lingering image of Cummins’ year is of him batting at Edgbaston, where his unbeaten 44 stole England’s first Ashes Test. The series, the summer, revolved around those innings, which typified Cummins’ captaincy. He led his team through some very tough weather. They were slapped by India’s bowlers and England’s batsmen, and hurt by press and public criticism of everything from their views on the climate crisis to the spirit of cricket. And he helped them overcome it as world Test champions and Ashes holders.
10) Mitchell Starc
147 runs in 15, 34 wickets in 29
After eight years, Starc finally signed for another season in the Indian Premier League in December. He sold for £1.9 million at auction, which made him the most expensive player in the league, and was a reminder of how much he could have earned all these years if he had not preferred to concentrate on playing for Australia. He came to England with a goal to prove, he had a mediocre record here and wasn’t even sure of earning a place in the team. He left it, two months later, as the leading wicket-taker in the Ashes series, at 23-27.
11) Broad Stuart
112 runs at 11, 38 wickets at 26
Mark Wood bowled faster, Chris Woakes took his wickets cheaper and Josh Hazlewood had a lower strike rate, but there was simply no way to leave Broad out of this XI. He had one of he great seasons, from his fake one-man war against Australia in the press, his first delivery to Marnus Labuschagne, his poor batting after Jonny Bairstow’s departure at Lord’s, his last six, the change of bail, those last two wickets . And at the end of it all, he somehow ended up with more wickets than any other rapid. Forget the boys’ own finishes, Broad’s was as good as it gets.
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