CricTracker fan poll – 5 best Test batsmen of the year

In yet another year-end poll we decided to ask the fans to rate the five best Test batsmen who outplayed all others in the last 12 months. Up for contest were five players who represent their national team as the best of the best. We picked the top five from the batsmen who had scored most runs and the qualification unlike the ICC’s September to September was January to December. Since the Boxing Day Test is underway the stats from the same were excluded.

More than 8800 fans voted in the poll on the CricTracker Facebook page and crowned a champion. The competitors were Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli, Pakistan’s emerging batting star Azhar Ali, the English batting duo of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow who though have different styles but have come to the fore as the backbone of their lineup and then there was the Australian skipper Steve Smith as well. Here are the top 5 based on the votes.

5. Jonny Bairstow – 3% votes

The wicketkeeper-batsman had an incredible year where he did not just take up responsibility behind the stumps but was also their most consistent batsman right through. Jonny Bairstow was the stability England were looking for in the middle order and the assurance with the gloves they needed quite badly.

On a tough tour of India where they lost the series 4-0 and the likes of skipper Alastair Cook found the going tough he was still up to the mark. Bairstow ended the year just a few runs short of Root and with 1470 runs was the second highest run-scorer in Tests in 2016. He had a superlative average of 58.80 to boast of. He wasn’t the favourite among the voters and got the least 3% votes.