NICK FRIEND reflects on 10 years of Test cricket, putting a team together of the decade's top performers - but only after hours of deliberation, self-doubt and guilt
8,818 runs @ 46.41 (23 100s, 37 50s)
Nobody scored more runs in Test cricket than the former England captain through the decade. Nobody faced more balls; nobody hit more boundaries; nobody played more games. Worldwide, only Joe Root passed fifty on more occasions in the longest format.
In the two-year spell between 2010 and 2011, when Cook wrote his name into Ashes folklore with his unprecedented series in Australia and made a career-best 294 against India, he averaged 67.1 across 22 games – an astonishing feat at the top of the order.
Only once in the decade – during the troubled times of 2014 after the sacking of Kevin Pietersen – did Cook fail to make a century in Test cricket.
7,088 runs @ 48.21 (23 100s, 30 50s)
Perhaps the most difficult position to fill in this composite line-up, partly by virtue of the plethora of options in the middle order, but also because few opening batsmen stand out from a decade that has proven a relative struggle for those at the top.
It was tempting to shoehorn Hashim Amla in as Cook's partner in order to find room for the South African great, but in the interests of giving the opening slot the specialism it deserves, David Warner takes it.
Many will point to the disparity in his record at home and overseas – he averages 65.36 in Australia and just 33.17 abroad, but that is – to my mind – an exaggerated criticism. Run-scoring remains an artform – to have dominated quite like Warner has done on home soil is remarkable.
Only four men scored more runs in the format during this decade. He makes his runs in Australia at a strike-rate of 76.39 – he has, in many ways, redefined the opening role in Test cricket. His unbeaten 335 against Pakistan is the highest individual score of the decade and he would surely have passed Brian Lara's 400 had he been given the chance.
6,379 runs @ 51.44 (21 100s, 31 50s)
Simply impossible to leave out, Kane Williamson's enduring class meant that he edged out Hashim Amla for the No.3 berth in this team. There was a five-year spell between the beginning of 2010 and the end of 2014 when the South African was quite irresistible.
He reached three figures on 16 occasions in that time, led by his unbeaten 311 at The Oval against England – a knock most memorable for its utter chancelessness. Handed the opportunity, he may well still have been going now. At times during the latter half of the decade, watching Amla was difficult – his cloak of invincibility had been broken.
By the time he announced his international retirement in 2019, the elegant batsman had not made a Test hundred for two years. That, however, should not define him; rather, it should be the earlier years, when nobody made run-scoring look quite so easy. Yet, Williamson gets in ahead of him by virtue of sheer consistency.
Not since 2012 has he averaged under 41. He has barged his way into the tedium of the 'Big Four' conversation through sheer weight of runs, doing so with an understated class that runs through his character. A fabulous cricketer.
Steve Smith has rewritten the Test record books in recent years
7,164 runs @ 62.84 (26 100s, 28 50s)
Steve Smith did not play a single Test in 2012. He had been dropped. After his first five Tests in 2010 and 2011, he averaged just 28.44. His idiosyncratic technique was routinely flawed; he pushed with hard hands and looked ungainly in doing so.
Since 2014, he has averaged 72.6. It is hard to know what has changed. If you fell asleep seven years ago and woke up now, you would be baffled beyond reasonable belief at Smith's transformation into his 'best since Bradman' role.
In the greatest manner possible, he has become a freak – a freakish example of what is possible. Away from home, he averages 60.15 – in India, that record hardly falls to 60, in England to 59.55. In New Zealand, it doubles – to 131 – and in West Indies, it flies even higher – to 141.5.
His average when batting first is 90.63; that record accounts for 41 innings and 16 centuries. His first innings century at Edgbaston in the summer's Ashes series – his first Test knock after his ball-tampering ban – may be one of the best ever between the sides. The greatest player of his era. And then some.
7,202 runs @ 54.97 (27 100s, 22 50s)
If Sachin Tendulkar was India's player of the previous decade, then this one has belonged to Virat Kohli. Almost certainly the world's finest three-format batsman – and almost certainly already the greatest ODI player of them all – only Alastair Cook and Joe Root have scored more Test runs than him since 2010.
His conversion rate is unrivalled among those at the top of the runs list; he has made 27 hundreds and 22 fifties since making his Test debut in 2011. None of the other 12 players to have passed 5,000 runs this decade have made more tons than half centuries. It is the hallmark of a cricket-obsessed nation's captain – he carries an insatiable appetite for run-scoring, but also for his country.
Rarely can there have been a more expressive Indian side than this, a team built in the image of its leader. Since taking the reins from MS Dhoni, his average has leapt dramatically; before skippering for the first time in 2014, he averaged just 41.13. Since then, he has scored at 63.8. He leads from the front – as a leader and with bat in hand.
4,851 runs @ 61.40 (17 100s, 20 50s)
The Sri Lankan great played his final Test in 2015, but not until he had matured with age like the finest of wines. Kumar Sangakkara retired having dominated the first half of the decade with the languid calm that made him one of the very best in the game's history.
His record across 47 Tests between 2010 and 2015 was outrageous; he made 4,851 runs at an average of 61.4. During that time, there were 37 scores above 50, 17 of which were converted into three figures. His 482-ball 319 against Bangladesh, which he made in 2014, would remain his highest score in Test cricket. He never once kept in Test cricket in the 2010s, so cannot take the gloves here.
Having entered the decade with a Test average of 55.1, he only dropped below that on one single occasion afterwards, before retiring with an all-time average of 57.4. An absolute giant of the sport; few are able to retire on their own terms. Sangakkara, one senses, could still be going now.
Kumar Sangakkara dominated the first half of the decade before leaving Test cricket in 2015
218 catches, 8 stumpings
A tougher choice, perhaps, than this ought to have been. BJ Watling has been decade's standout wicketkeeper by some distance – Bangladesh's Mushfiqur Rahim is the only man who truly comes close for consistency. It was tempting to opt for AB de Villiers, who kept on occasion for South Africa, though not with any regularity.
Only 11 players scored more Test runs than de Villiers this decade – a surprise, perhaps, to those who picture him as a doyen of the white-ball game. His 5,059 runs have come at an average of 57.48 and – notably – at a lowly strike-rate of just 55.65. Those who view him as a brilliant – albeit one-dimensional – swashbuckler, think again.
One of the most extraordinary knocks of the decade – even in a losing cause – came from de Villiers in Delhi when, looking to clinch an improbable draw, he faced 297 balls for his 43 on a pitch that was turning prodigiously. Only once in the entire decade did his yearly average ever drop below 47.
Watling, however, affected more dismissals than anyone else – his 226 comfortably more than Matt Prior, his closest rival in that regard. His recent double hundred against England was his eighth Test century. If we're picking on regularly excellent glovework – and I am – then Watling is the only choice.
220 wickets @ 21.99
Stuart Broad, Mitchell Johnson, Tim Southee, Morne Morkel, Mitchell Starc, Ishant Sharma, Trent Boult, Josh Hazlewood, Neil Wagner and Kagiso Rabada are all fiendishly unfortunate to miss out here.
Ultimately, this pick came down partly to personal preference and partly to admiration for a mastery of the simplest of skills. In a decade that, at times, has been akin to an arms race, such has been the obsession to field bowlers of extreme pace, Vernon Philander has been a happy exception to the rule, making batsmen look silly at 80mph all over the world.
This century, only two players – Yasir Shah and Ravichandran Ashwin – went from zero to 100 wickets in quicker time than Vernon Philander.
Few have kept batsmen as honest as the seamer, for whom pace has never been a principal weapon; rather, he has relied on consistency of line and length, deadeye precision and seam movement.
He has taken five-wicket hauls against all bar West Indies, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, while his 142 scalps on home soil have come at 18.48 runs each.
The international game will be poorer for his absence, once he retires at the conclusion of South Africa's series against England to join Somerset on a year-to-year basis. A fine bowler, who leaves the Test scene with the respect of all those he came across.
363 wickets @ 26.41
It is a three-way fight for the spinner's spot in this side; Nathan Lyon, Ravichandran Ashwin and Rangana Herath have taken 1,105 wickets between them since 2010 and there are certainly valid arguments for selecting any of the trio.
Lyon, for one, has worked relative miracles, becoming Australia's most successful off-spinner, often bowling on unresponsive surfaces. He has the ability to both attack and defend immaculately. Factor in his story – he was working as a groundsman not that long ago, and it represents a remarkable effort.
In Ashwin's case, the pressure on any Indian spinner is enormous, given both those who have come beforehand, but also the advantages that come with life as a slow bowler on subcontinental surfaces. He holds the best average and strike-rate of the three bowlers.
However, I have plumped for Herath here. Quite simply, he is a wonderful throwback to a different time; everything about the way in which he goes about his cricket is hugely simplistic.
His run-up and action are almost token gestures, he is no greater mover in the field, there is little discernible variation to his bowling – more, a reliance on basic perfection. Yet, it works.
Muttiah Muralitharan's understudy for so many years – he played his first Test in 1999 – Herath stepped out of his shadow following the Sri Lankan legend's retirement.
Vernon Philander – something of a wildcard in this selection – will retire from international cricket at the end of South Africa's series against England
267 wickets @ 22.29
One of the shames of the decade is that the South African great has only played 59 Tests. Injuries have taken their toll on the body of one of the game's modern icons. A bowling average of 22.29 is testament to the wicket-taking abilities of the fast bowler; he has taken 267 scalps this decade.
Even with the statistical dominance of Smith, Kohli and Anderson, Dale Steyn's name is probably the first on this teamsheet. An absolute phenomenon when fit and firing. A fearsome, box-office talent.
429 wickets @ 24.35
When he clean-bowled Mohammed Shami in 2018 at The Oval, James Anderson surpassed Glenn McGrath to become Test cricket's highest wicket-taking seamer. It was a remarkable moment for a brilliantly skilled bowler.
Nobody has taken more than his 429 wickets – in fact, until this week, he was the only man to have even taken 400 across the decade. Stuart Broad, his great mate and new-ball partner, sits in a comfortable second, having extended his tally to 403 with four first-innings scalps this week in Centurion. Some will argue that Anderson's numbers are weighted in his favour by his mastery of English conditions, but that is to miss the point.
He has nailed his art to within an inch of the life of any batsman. And he has improved with age: under Joe Root's captaincy, his wickets have come at 20.88 apiece. After England won in India in 2012 in a series dominated by batsmen and spin, MS Dhoni sung his praises.
"We struggled in the batting department but the difference between the bowling sides was James Anderson," the then-captain said of the seamer – high praise.
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Posted by Tim Leavey on 03/01/2020 at 15:22
Why no Allrounder? Jacque Kalis the greatest ever allrounder played in this decade
Posted by Archie on 03/01/2020 at 12:05
This team is struggling for a 5th bowler, even a fill-in - are Williamson's offspinners really acceptable? Otherwise one of the top batsmen will have to be sacrificed for an allrounder.
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