The Debutants - Combined XI of the year

Like every year, 2016 also saw young names enter the international arena and make a mark for themselves. Almost all the top teams were gifted enough to discover at least one genius individual who promises wonderful performances in the future. These young names aren’t just gifted or talented; they possess other vital characteristics like attitude, mental toughness and determination to succeed and leapfrog the competition.

Some of the performances given by the individuals who feature in this list speak volumes of the above-mentioned qualities. Here in this article, we try to form an XI consisting of the players who made their entry to the international cricket this year.

1. Haseeb Hameed (England):

Haseeb Hameed when batting is an artist at work. The 19-year-old opening batsman was surely the find of the year for England in the Test format. After being ignored for the Youth World Cup earlier this year, Hameed grabbed the limelight with record-breaking performances for Lancashire in this year’s County season, top scoring with 1198 runs at an average of 49.91 including 4 hundreds and 7 fifties.

But, above all, it is his playing style that proves to be the most favourable factor for him. In the age of the modern day hard hitting, the right-hander mostly relies on placement and timing. There was a huge hype surround him and he later lived up to all his reputation after making his debut against India in India, his country of origin before getting ruled out due to a finger injury.

In the first game, he started with a well-compiled 31 and followed it up with a half-century in the second innings. In the second game at Vizag was a forgettable one. But, at Mohali, he won over the hearts of everyone after playing with the broken finger and hitting 59* with a broken finger. The injury forced him to miss the remaining two tests but he ended as a hero.

2. Babar Azam (Pakistan):

Babar Azam looks as the potential solution to Pakistan’s batting woes. The Men in Green have traditionally suffered due to inconsistency. It has been the single biggest issue the Asian Giants have been facing.

However, the young batsman seems to have the consistency by his side, much to the relief of Pakistan fans. The right-handed batsman made his international debut against Zimbabwe in an ODI at Lahore before making the T20I and Test debuts in September and October.

But, Azam didn’t require much time to seal his reputation as the next big batting sensation of Pakistan. His impact has been immense. His hat-trick of centuries against West Indies in UAE and century against the same team on his Test debut described the talent he possess.

3. KL Rahul (India):

This year had been a year of resurrection as far as KL Rahul is concerned. The rising battings star, who at the time of his Test debut in Australia during the 2015 tour Down Under was labelled a Test specialist, re-invented his batting under the guidance of Virat Kohli to emerge as India’s all season opener.

After making an entry into the international arena with a century on debut against Australia, Rahul initially faced a lot of trouble to get into the limited overs team, partly because of his traditional approach.

However, by the time the IPL 2016 was over, Rahul was a new breed. With 397 runs with strike rate of close to 150 to show, Rahul made his ODI and T20I debut this year against Zimbabwe in Harare. Injuries, unfortunately, bogged him down towards the end of the year restricting him to just 3 ODIs and 5 T20Is.

4. Dhananjaya de Silva (Sri Lanka):

Dhanajaya de Silva, the technically sound batsman, is Sri Lanka’s highest run-getter in Tests for 2016, a great achievement given the fact that he made his Test debut against Australia just 6 months ago at Pallekele.

After the retirement of legends like Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, Sri Lanka entered the rebuilding phase where each and every game became a test. Finding new talents an arduous task but Sri Lanka was lucky enough to find Dhananjaya this year.

His record in the limited-overs cricket maybe average but if we talk about Tests, we must admit that overall tally of 550 runs at an average of 61.11 including two classy centuries is far better than most batsman this year.

5. Travis Head (Australia):

Much like KL Rahul, aggressive batting all-rounder Travis Head also rose in the international arena with the help of sterling performances in franchise cricket – the Big Bash League. Despite the presence of Glenn Maxwell, Australia were still in search of someone who could be more consistent with the bat and reliable during crunch situations. Head appeared a possible option to sort out the middle order problems.

The 22-year-old was soon tried and got his first international experience in January against India in the home series where he failed to make much difference and could get only 4 T20Is overall. But, the selectors opted to give him more chances in the ODIs and did not disappoint scoring 416 runs in 15 matches including three fifties batting in the middle order. His part-time off-spin also came handy on occasion.

6. Jayant Yadav (India):

Jayant Yadav was the year-end bonanza for Team India who had a terrific year. The Haryana all-rounder who made his international debut against New Zealand in October later made his debut in the longest format against England in Vizag and gave stellar performances to win the respect of the critics and fans.

The off-spinner played perfect partner to his senior-pro Ravichandran Ashwin and almost immediately sealed his place with an appreciable show with the ball and bat. He couldn’t dominate with the ball in the presence of Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. However, Yadav grabbed the opportunity with the bat, scoring the famous 104 runs knock batting with Virat Kohli in the lower order. His effort resulted in a massive record breaking 251runs stand for the 9th wicket. In all, he ended the year with 221 runs in 3 Tests.

7. Adam Zampa (Australia):

Adam Zampa, another BBL product, finishes 2016 as the highest wicket-taker for Australia ODIs after making his debut earlier this year. The Australian leg-spinner’s road to success has been tough. After playing U-19 cricket for Australia in 2010, he progressed steadily in NSW, earning his first-class debut in November 2012 and subsequently gave promising performances for the Blues limited overs side and the Sydney Thunder in the BBL.

Eventually, his performances proved good enough and he made his ODI debut against New Zealand in February. Since then he secured a regular place in the limited-overs setup taking 30 wickets in 19 ODIs to end as the highest wicket-taker in ODIs this calendar year.

8. Peter Moor (Zimbabwe):

Peter Moor ‘the extremely patriotic Zimbabwean’ faced struggles in age group cricket, slowly made progress and eventually made his way up to the national team. Growing up in a cricketing family (his uncle, father and brother are all cricketers), he took up the game at the age of five.

Moor was given an opportunity to prove his credentials as a wicketkeeper-batsman during the home Test series against New Zealand in August. He made his debut in the second Test of the series at Bulawayo and hit 71 runs at number 7 in a high-scoring match which the tourist won hands down.

Since then, he played as a permanent in the Test setup and featured in the team for another two Tests which Zimbabwe played later in the year against Sri Lanka.

9. Jasprit Bumrah (India):

Jasprit Bumrah is hard to ignore. The right-arm fast bowler with a quirky action made a name for himself with his unorthodox action and ability to bowl pinpoint yorkers. Learning to bowl yorkers in his living room as a kid, his exploits for the Mumbai Indians and Gujarat in the year 2015 saw him getting a place in the tour party to Australia where he impressed skipper MS Dhoni so much that he called him the find of the Australia series.

His ODI debut and the T20I performances thereafter have been exceptional and Bumrah continues to impress with every match. He has been an asset to the Indian side due to his death bowling. Injuries, unfortunately, also hampered him and limited his international appearance to just 8 ODIs and 21 T20Is in which he took 17 and 28 wickets respectively.

10. Hasan Ali (Pakistan):

Hasan Ali was one of the fast bowlers who caught the attention of the then newly elected chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq. His economical performances for Islamabad got him the opportunity to make his debut to fly to England and make his international debut against Ireland during the Irish leg of the series.

His accuracy and variations are the main wickets-taking weapons. During the ODI series Hasan played perfect foil to senior bowlers – Rahat Ali and Mohammad Amir. He, later on, went on to make his T20I debut during the same tour. Hasan was by far the best fast to make his debut this year and ended playing 8 ODIs and 3 T20Is for Pakistan taking 11 and 6 wickets respectively.

11. Miguel Cummins (West Indies):

Barbados fast bowler Miguel Cummins broke into the West Indies’ squad for the first Test against India as a replacement for Jerome Taylor, who retired from Test cricket this year. The 25-year-old got the opportunity after warming the bench during the tour to Australia in 2015-16 as a replacement for Shannon Gabriel.

Bowling at a decent pace, Cummins, who has played 41 first-class matches with 116 wickets at an average of 22.56, played 5 Tests this year – three against India at home and two against Pakistan in UAE. However, success was limited for him largely due to the unfavourable circumstances.

After going wicketless on debut against India at Kingston, he came back roaring with 3/54 and 6/48. His performance, unfortunately, could not save West Indies from losing. Later, he travelled to the UAE where slow pitches completely neutralised him. In all, he could take only 10 wickets but he surely promises better performances in Tests next year.