Former Indian cricketer and now a commentator and cricket analyst, Aakash Chopra has picked Top 5 Batters and Bowlers in Test cricket in 2021.
While Test cricket has fallen of the top with emergence of shorter format of the game. But, Test cricket finally showcased its true class in 2021.
2021 saw many Test matches being hosted, whether it is the historic India’s tour to Australia early in the year, or the inaugural World Test Championship Final, Test cricket won fans’ heart.
Aakash Chopra picks Top 5 Batsmen and Bowlers in Test cricket in 2021
And now, with the year 2021 is coming to an end, former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra has picked his Top 5 batters and bowlers in Test cricket in 2021 in a recently uploaded video on his YouTube channel.
Chopra picked Fawad Alam, Lahiru Thirimanne, Rishabh Pant, Rohit Sharma and Joe Root as the top 5 batters in Test cricket this year.
Joe Root tops the list with over 1500 runs and currently going in the ongoing Ashes Test series against Australia. India’s opening batsman Rohit Sharma has scored close to a thousand runs (906 runs) in the calendar year.
Sri Lanka’s Lahiru Thirimanne and India’s wicketkeeper batsman Rishabh Pant has scored 659 and 706 runs respectively, while Fawad Alam sits at 5th spot with 513 runs from the Pakistani batsman.
In terms of the bowlers, Chopra surprisingly opted to not pick India’s Jasprit Bumrah, neither did he pick Axar Patel, but off-spin bowler Ravichandran Ashwin and pacer Mohammed Siraj did made the list.
The 5 bowlers whom he picked are Ravichandran Ashwin, James Anderson, Ollie Robinson, Mohammed Siraj and Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi.
Ravichandran Ashwin is India’s one of the top bowler, who can also contribute with the bat. Ashwin has picked up 52 wickets from 8 matches, and is very likely to play one more match before the end of the year against South Africa.
England duo James Anderson and Ollie Robinson have both been included in the list. Pacer James Anderson has picked 32 wickets in 19 matches, whereas, Ollie Robinson has bagged 28 wickets.
The top 2 are Mohammed Siraj and Pakistan’s Shaheen Afridi. Mohammed Siraj has been India’s one of the pick of the bowlers this year 2021. The right-arm pacer has taken 28 wickets in 9 matches and was exceptional in all of the matches.
Pakistan’s Shaheen Afridi is at the top. Shaheen has bagged 47 wickets in 9 matches. Chopra heaped praise on the Pakistani left-arm pacer bowling and his technique.
Ravichandran Ashwin currently stands as the highest wicket-taker in 2021 and Shaheen Afridi sits right behind him, however, Chopra picked the 5 in no order.
