Alastair Cook named captain of ICC Test team of the year

ICC Test team of the year: A Cook (England, captain), D Warner (Australia), K Williamson (New Zealand), Younis Khan (Pakistan), S Smith (Australia), J Root (England), Sarfraz Ahmed (Pakistan), S Broad (England), T Boult (New Zealand), Yasir Shah (Pakistan), J Hazlewood (Australia), 12th man: R Ashwin (India).

Stuart Broad finds a place in the Test team of the year for the fifth time since 2009, while Trent Boult and Josh Hazlewood form the seam attack.

Smith and New Zealand’s Ross Taylor complete the batting line-up while England’s Joe Root has been included as the 12th man of the team.

During the voting period Smith scored 1734 runs at 82.57 in 13 Tests with seven centuries. He is one of three Protean players selected alongside Hashim Amla (also selected in 2013) and Imran Tahir.

According to an official ICC media release, the selection panel, headed by Kumble, included Ian Bishop, the former West Indian fast bowler, Mark Butcher, the ex-England batsman, Belinda Clark, former Australia women’s team captain and G. Vishwanath, Deputy Editor of Indian daily The Hindu & Sportstar.

“Team selection is one of the toughest jobs and when you have a large pool of outstanding players to select from in a 12-month period then it becomes even more hard”. Hashim Amla and Imran Tahir are the other South Africans, while Kumar Sangakkara, who recently retired from global cricket, is selected as wicketkeeper.

Two of Sri Lanka’s stalwarts have made it to this years edition of the ICC’s selection for the ODI team of the year.

The world’s number-one ranked five-day team, South Africa, has no representatives in the Test team of the year announced by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday.

“Testament to the quality of cricket played is the calibre of players to have missed out on selection”, Kumble said in an ICC statement.

While AB de Villiers has been selected in the ODI Team of the Year for the fourth time in five years and for the first time in captain’s role.

“While selecting these squads, the selectors considered various combinations and took into account several factors in overall performances”, added the former leg-spinner.

Smith and Starc are joined by New Zealand’s Ross Taylor and Trent Boult, India’s Mohammaed Shami and Bangladesh’s Mustafizur Rahman, with Root coming in as 12th man.