ISLAMABAD:Cricket Australia (CA) has named Pakistani trio of Fawad Alam, Hasan Ali and Shaheen Shah Afridi in their Test Team of the Year, revealed Friday.
The CA included three Pakistani players in the final XI, left-arm middle-order batter Fawad Alam, and pacer duo of Hasan Ali and Shaheen Shah Afridi.
Besides the three Pakistani players in the Final XI others included
Rohit Sharma (India), Dimuth Karunaratne (Sri Lanka) (captain), Marnus Labuschagne (Australia), Joe Root (England), Rishabh Pant (India) (wicketkeeper), Ravichandran Ashwin (India), Kyle Jamieson (New Zealand) and Axar Patel (India).
Alam made a comeback in the Pakistan Test team and his performances in 2021 have made his position firm in the side after he established himself as a consistent player.
“One of the great comeback stories continued in 2021 as Alam established himself as a consistent source of runs more than a decade after making a century on his Test debut. After celebrating the end of his 11-year Test exile with a hundred in New Zealand in late 2020, the unorthodox left-hander showed he’s a man for all conditions by adding hundreds in Karachi, Harare and Kingston to finish the year as one of only three men to score three or more centuries,” CA wrote.
CA further said the third seamer’s spot was the most hotly contested in this side, but Pakistan’s Hasan Ali gets in ahead of India’s Jasprit Bumrah and England pair Jimmy Anderson and Ollie Robinson after a triumphant return to the Test arena in 2021. While 14 of his 41 wickets came against a struggling Zimbabwe side, the right-armer’s numbers are hard to argue with and his 10-wicket haul in a famous win over South Africa in Rawalpindi – his first Test campaign in two years – would live long in the memory. His strike rate of 31.0, meaning he took a wicket roughly every five overs, is the best of any Test bowler in 2021.
Coming to Shaheen Shah Afridi, CA said one of the most exciting talents in world cricket, Shaheen Shah Afridi delivered on his enormous potential in 2021 to finish the year as the second-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket.
“With blistering pace, beautiful shape and an action to die for, the left-armer led the Pakistan attack in five Test campaigns (four of them away from home), the high point being his 18 wickets in two Tests against the West Indies in Jamaica. Still just 21, Afridi went wicketless only twice in 17 innings this year, adding impressive consistency to his undoubted potency,” CA said.