Ravichandran Ashwin is among three Indians to be named in the list.© AFP
Opening batter Rohit Sharma, off-spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel, and wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant are three Indians who have been named in Cricket.com.au’s Test team of the year 2021. Cricket.com.au selected Rohit as the opening batter. Having dominated white-ball cricket and his home conditions for years, Rohit Sharma conquered his final frontier this year by showing he can score big Test runs outside of Asia. And a strong 2021 that saw him finish behind only Joe Root for most runs could have been even better if the classy right-hander had translated multiple strong starts into big hundreds.
Rishabh Pant was named as the wicketkeeper. His numbers would look considerably better if he’d been able to turn scores of 97 (in Sydney), 89* (in Brisbane) and 91 (in Chennai) into hundreds. The way he dismantled Australia and England at the start of the year rightfully earned him comparisons with the great Adam Gilchrist.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel have scalped 54 and 36 wickets, with an average of 16.64 and 11.86, respectively this year.
Promoted
Australia’s Marnus Marnus Labuschagne was the lone player from the national side who was included in the list.
Cricket Australia Test XI of 2021: Rohit Sharma, Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Marnus Labuschagne, Joe Root, Fawad Alam, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravi Ashwin, Kyle Jamieson, Axar Patel, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi
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