Choosing the finest Test 11 from 2023 ft. Pat Cummins and Ravindra Jadeja. Another exciting year of Test cricket has come to an end, with both Boxing Day Tests in Centurion.
And Melbourne yielding swift outcomes as hosts South Africa and Australia triumphed over India and Pakistan, separately.
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Choosing the finest Test 11 from 2023 ft. Pat Cummins and Ravindra Jadeja
While the focus in men’s cricket for 2023 was always going to be on ODIs due to the World Cup.
Tests were always going to remain significant with the end of one World Test Championship (WTC) cycle and the start of another.
India and Australia advanced to the final of the 2021-23 cycle, with Australia triumphing at The Oval in London.
Australia had a busy year in the format, touring India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy prior to facing England in their own country to retain the Ashes.
With the WTC making every game a near-must-win, the emphasis on the game’s oldest format is as strong as it has ever been.
Looking back on the previous year, there were a number of remarkable individual performances, with the guys in question capable of bragging about making it to the best playing XI of 2023.
If Usman Khawaja had a fantastic year in 2022, he merely improved his game in 2023. Continuing his famous comeback in international cricket.
He opened the year with an unbeaten 195 against South Africa in Sydney, following which he picked up runs in India and England to demonstrate his variety and ever-improving technique.
Joe Root, Harry Brook, and Travis Head (Middle order)
Joe Root’s brilliant purple period in Test cricket continued into 2023, thanks to a flurry of runs in New Zealand and a solid performance in the Ashes.
He completed with 787 runs from eight matches at an incredible average of 65.58, including five fifties and two hundreds.
Harry Brook, Root’s colleague and fellow Yorkshireman, continues to demonstrate why he’s one of the sport’s next great things.
His 176-ball 186 in Wellington was one of the greatest innings of the year, and he followed it up with three successive fifties in three Tests in the second part of the Ashes, when England trailed the Australians.
Ravindra Jadeja, and Tom Blundell (All-rounder and wicketkeeper)
There is no doubt that Ravindra Jadeja is an all-time great Test player. Apart from sharing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Player of the Series title with Ravichandran Ashwin.
He was at his most precise with the ball, taking 33 wickets from 7 matches at a stunning average of 19.39 and a strike rate of 48.57.
He showed outstanding bat application on tricky wickets at home. And also scored a strong 48 in the WTC final under trying conditions.
2023 was a difficult year for wicket-keeper hitters, and it was difficult to choose just one. Tom Blundell of New Zealand may have only achieved one double-digit score in his past seven Test innings.
But he had a fantastic first half, amassing runs in Pakistan as well as at home against a quality England attack.
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Ravichandran Ashwin, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Stuart Broad (Bowlers)
The frontline bowling assault is led by a superb bowling team with a total of 1688 wickets. When it comes to selecting a playing XI of the year, Ravichandran Ashwin and Nathan Lyon frequently go toe-to-toe, and it was no different this time.
Lyon led the year with 47 wickets at 24.95 apiece, and his loss was palpable following the second Ashes Test.