Test team of the year

I put together an ODI team of the year, and I'm going to use a similar method for test team of the year.

The first thing that needs to be decided on is the balance of the team. Often the successful teams play with 4 bowlers and one batsman who can contribute with the ball. (There has only been one game this year where a team has won with only using 4 bowlers)

This time rather than using matches at the World cup as a premium, I'm looking at away matches as the premium. This year we have seen some very good performances by home teams, and only a few by away teams, so there needs to be a bonus for teams performing away from home. (For the purpose of this I don't consider games in UAE as away games for either team)

Openers, Alastair Cook & Tino Mawayo

This was selected from batsmen who had played at least 6 innings as openers.

The selection was fairly straight-forward

Player	Matches	Runs	Actual Average	Points
AN Cook (Eng)	8	927	84.27	84.31
TMK Mawoyo (Zim)	3	310	62.00	59.17
Taufeeq Umar (Pak)	10	831	46.16	46.55
DA Warner (Aus)	3	195	48.75	43.84
Mohammad Hafeez (Pak)	10	647	40.43	36.41
V Sibanda (Zim)	3	272	45.33	36.40
GC Smith (SA)	5	322	40.25	36.20

In reality Tino Mawoyo's first class record suggest it is unlikely that he will turn out to be a world class opener, but he has produced world class numbers this year (including carrying his bat for a particularly memorable 453 ball epic 163* against Pakistan). And Zimbabwe has produced some outstanding batsmen in their short test history.

Number 3 Rahul Dravid

This was not so straight forward, as the runs below were not just scored at number 3. Dravid did better when he opened the batting, and Amla did worse the one innings that he didn't bat at number 3. Sangakkara scored the most runs, but didn't manage any not out's so his average suffered accordingly.

Player	Matches	Runs	Actual Average	Points
R Dravid (India)	12	1145	57.25	59.05
KA Edwards (WI)	6	595	54.09	53.12
SE Marsh (Aus)	4	287	41.00	48.67
Azhar Ali (Pak)	10	732	45.75	45.14
KC Sangakkara (SL)	11	1034	49.23	43.93
HM Amla (SA)	5	423	47.00	42.27
IJL Trott (Eng)	6	365	40.55	36.47

Numbers 4 & 5 Younis Khan & Ian Bell

Ian Bell has batted at 6 for this year, but he has been a specialist batsman, rather than an all-rounder.

Player	Matches	Runs	Actual Average	Points
IR Bell (Eng)	8	950	118.75	110.24
Younis Khan (Pak)	8	765	85.00	83.93
Misbah-ul-Haq (Pak)	10	765	69.54	75.15
KP Pietersen (Eng)	8	731	73.10	65.07
DG Brownlie (NZ)	3	268	53.60	60.76
S Chanderpaul (WI)	8	646	53.83	54.21
DM Bravo (WI)	10	949	49.94	53.91
BRM Taylor (Zim)	3	358	71.60	50.44
SR Tendulkar (India)	9	756	47.25	49.62
MEK Hussey (Aus)	9	680	42.50	48.18
TT Samaraweera (SL)	7	501	41.75	46.82
Shakib Al Hasan (Ban)	5	451	50.11	46.54
JH Kallis (SA)	5	359	51.28	46.12

All rounder Mike Hussey

This was a surprise. I was expecting Shakib, Watson, Vettori or Kallis to come out on top here. Hussey was hardly a front-line bowler, but we are only looking for someone who can contribute, and of the players that do that he has been the most effective this year. Kallis has not exactly had a vintage year with the ball, bowling 61 overs for 232 runs. Watson however has been outstanding with the ball, but surprisingly poor with the bat, especially since I thought I remembered him batting really well.

Player	Batting	Bowling	Difference
MEK Hussey (Aus)	48.18	17.97	30.21
Shakib Al Hasan (Ban)	46.54	30.66	15.88
Mohammad Hafeez (Pak)	36.41	22.66	13.75
DL Vettori (NZ)	40.23	27.68	12.55
AD Mathews (SL)	40.52	30.58	9.94
R Ashwin (India)	34.59	27.25	7.34
SR Watson (Aus)	23.82	17.14	6.68
Azhar Ali (Pak)	45.14	38.92	6.22
DJG Sammy (WI)	18.19	30.13	-11.94
TM Dilshan (SL)	35.21	53.45	-18.24
MN Samuels (WI)	32.51	54.06	-21.55
IJL Trott (Eng)	36.47	110.09	-73.62
JH Kallis (SA)	46.12	257.98	-211.86

Wicketkeeper Matt Prior

This was the easiest decision of all.

Matt Prior is so far above the rest of the keepers in terms of batting that he really selects himself. His numbers don't indicate that he is the best keeper, but given that he concedes about 5 byes per innings, but his adjusted average is about 25 runs more than the next best with the bat, he can't be overlooked.

Here is the batting stats for everyone who averaged 35 or higher:

Player	Matches	Runs	Actual Average	Points
MJ Prior (Eng)	8	519	64.87	64.90
T Taibu (Zim)	3	267	44.50	39.17
Adnan Akmal (Pak)	8	211	35.16	36.54
Mushfiqur Rahim (Ban)	5	340	37.77	35.07

And their byes stats:

Name	Byes	Deliveries	Byes/100 overs
Adnan Akmal (Pak)	26	8559	1.82
T Taibu (Zim)	15	2581	3.49
Mushfiqur Rahim (Ban)	34	4741	4.30
MJ Prior (Eng)	65	8096	4.82

The intangible is dropped catches. It is more work than I'm prepared to do to go back and count the number of catches dropped. If Adnan or Taibu had not dropped any catches, and Prior dropped 1 per game, then there would be a difficult decision, but given that we don't have any data we have to proceed on the understanding that there is no significant difference between them.

Bowlers James Pattinson, Shane Watson, Doug Bracewell and Saeed Ajmal

Here I decided that a bowler had to have bowled 90 overs. I got this number as it was roughly the lower quartile of bowlers who had bowled in 5 innings. This was better than just using 5 innings, as measuring in overs allows more consistency (someone who bowls 2 overs in each of 5 innings just giving a rest to the other bowlers and picks up 3 wickets for 55 runs because the batsmen are slogging him would end up with a very good average despite not being a front-line bowler - for a less extreme version of this see Mike Hussey) Unfortunately Vernon Philander just missed out on this.

I also needed to have at least 2 quick bowlers and at least 1 spinner. The final position comes down to performance (although in reality it would probably come down to the conditions). As a result I have picked Saeed Ajmal, as the best spinner.

Name	Matches	Overs	Wickets	Actual Average	Weighted Average
JL Pattinson (Aus)	3	98.5	20	15.20	16.90
SR Watson (Aus)	6	113.5	14	19.07	17.14
DAJ Bracewell (NZ)	3	101	16	19.25	17.39
TT Bresnan (Eng)	4	139.3	21	19.09	20.95
Z Khan (India)	3	114.2	13	23.15	21.46
DW Steyn (SA)	5	178.4	28	19.57	21.76
Saeed Ajmal (Pak)	8	487	50	23.86	21.97
Mohammad Hafeez (Pak)	10	167	15	25.93	22.66
Aizaz Cheema (Pak)	4	146.4	19	24.78	23.38
U Yadav (India)	3	96.3	16	22.93	23.42
P Kumar (India)	6	268.3	27	25.81	23.92
Abdur Rehman (Pak)	8	412	36	26.27	24.39
SCJ Broad (Eng)	7	270.2	33	22.30	24.80
PP Ojha (India)	3	177.2	20	22.50	25.02
Umar Gul (Pak)	8	287.5	34	25.67	25.09
JM Anderson (Eng)	7	296.2	35	24.85	25.57
R Rampaul (WI)	8	283.1	31	25.03	26.20
R Ashwin (India)	4	221	26	24.80	27.25
DL Vettori (NZ)	4	228.1	16	27.12	27.68
CS Martin (NZ)	5	192	20	29.45	27.94
NM Lyon (Aus)	8	198.4	23	27.47	28.64
CT Tremlett (Eng)	5	207.4	23	27.17	29.71
HMRKB Herath (SL)	10	470.1	41	29.07	29.92

Most of the players selected have not played much cricket, and just scrape in on overs bowled. If we extended that to 150 overs required the line up would be Dale Steyn, Praveen Kumar, Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez.

The team (in batting order)

Alastair Cook
Tino Mawoyo
Rahul Dravid
Younis Khan
Michael Hussey
Ian Bell
Matt Prior
Shane Watson
Doug Bracewell
James Pattinson
Saeed Ajmal

12th man Mohammad Hafeez

Surprisingly there are no South Africans or Sri Lankans in the team. There are also no West Indians or Bangladeshis either.

That's my stats based team. What is your team?