Karunaratne
Mendis
Williamson
Kohli
Nicholls
Buttler
Paine
Holder
Maharaj
Rabada
Abbas
Mendis scored two tons opening this year and averages 47 overall, I think his selection makes sense. Khawaja’s been pretty quiet outside of that Test he had in the UAE, ditto Latham and the double at the Basin, and Markram and Elgar only average mid-30’s so it’s not like the competition is great.
Williamson and Kohli are obvious. Nicholls kinda is too, has played some really important knocks this year. #6 is more interesting. Babar Azam had the best average but can’t help but think his knocks weren’t influential enough. Monimul managed 4 tons this year but Bangladesh seemed to largely only play weaker opposition this year, and he failed on the tour to the WIndies. No good Top 6 all-rounders stood out, same applies for wicket-keepers so I find it hard to slot both Holder and Curran in. AB did score lots of runs but it just feels wrong to pick someone who retired in March. So I’m going Buttler, who’s knocks seemed to come in tougher circumstances than Azam.
Keeper is really tough. Foakes only had one series. Mushy only played 4 Tests which doesn’t feel like enough. So I guess that leaves Paine, Watling an Dowrich. Paine is a bit of a biased call I admit but given the circumstances around Australian cricket this year he’s done a very admirable job in really tough circumstances.
Seam bowling picks itself I think. Lots of HM’s though - Anderson, Gabriel, Southee, Morkel (with the AB caveat), Cummins, Curran, Sharma and Bumrah would all not look out of place at all.
Spin is tougher as too many of them have only really done the business at home. Lyon’s selections reeks of recency bias, he was pretty poor in South Africa and to a lesser extent the UAE. Speaking of the UAE the pitches there were generally rather flat this year so Yasir could make perfect sense, but a lack of Tests count against him. I’m going Maharaj as he’s had the most variety of conditions he’s bowled in.
