This year has been marked as the starting of the new ICC tournament in the cricket world. With the start of Ashes 2019, the World Test Championship (WTC) 2019-21 has also been started. The No.1 Test team, India, also tops the points table of WTC (360 points). Australia is in second position with 256 numbers in the points table. Many cricketers shined this year in the longest format. The cricket expert and commentator Harsha Bhogle chose his best Test XI of 2019.
Top-order Batsmen
Bhogle selected the Indian batsman Mayank Agarwal and New Zealand Tom Latham as the opening partner. Mayank Agarwal, who made the Test debut last year in December against Australia, had a tremendous contribution to Test in 2019. He scored two double centuries and one century in home series. This year in 11 innings, he scored 754 runs at an average of 68.54.
New Zealander Tom Latham scored runs everywhere in the world. In 12 innings played this year, he scored 601 runs at the average of 50.08. To bat at no.3, Bhogle has selected Marnus Labuschagne, who had a great this year. He came as a substitute for Steve Smith in the Ashes 2019 and made his permanent place in the team. He consecutively three centuries at home but failed to convert those into double-centuries. In 17 innings played this year, he scored 1104 runs at an average of 64.94.
Middle-order batsmen
Steve Smith and Virat Kohli have been placed at No.4 and No.5 in the batting order. Steve Smith, who made a comeback after a one-year-long break, scored 965 runs in 13 innings this year at an average of 74.23. The Indian captain Virat Kohli is the no.1 Test batsman in the ICC ranking who averages 68.00 this year.
England all-rounder Ben Stokes had a fantastic year this year, and he has been selected to bat at no.6 by Bhogle. In 11 matches, he scored 821 runs and picked 22 wickets. BJ Watling is chosen for the wicketkeeping role.
Bowlers (lower-order batsmen)
In the bowling department, Bhogle has selected three full-time fast bowlers Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Neil Wagner. For spinning options, he selected Nathan Lyon, who had always been a wicket-taker for Australia. He has dropped Mohammed Shami from the race as he believes Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc were better in comparison to the Indian pacer.
Test XI of 2019
Mayank Agarwal, Tom Latham, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Virat Kohli, Ben Stokes, BJ Watling, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Neil Wagner