Our staff pick their men’s and women’s teams from among those who excelled through the year
Yash Jha30-Dec-2024Clutch in T20s, top of the class in Tests – Jasprit Bumrah’s mastery of all formats make him the only man to make it to two of ESPNcricinfo’s teams of the year for 2024. The year’s headline events – the men’s and women’s T20 World Cups – saw ball dominate bat, and as a result, two bowling stars each from the championship-winning teams make the T20 XIs: Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh for India, Amelia Kerr and Rosemary Mair for New Zealand.Girish TS/ESPNcricinfo LtdBumrah was one of two unanimous choices for the men’s Test XI, as voted for by ESPNcricinfo staff, alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal, who laced his first full year in international cricket with two double-centuries against England and 161 in Perth, all in wins.Ravindra Jadeja joins his India team-mates as the spin-bowling allrounder in our XI, but England are the most represented side: only Jaiswal prevented Joe Root, Ben Duckett and Harry Brook from making it an all-English podium for most Test runs in 2024; Jamie Smith pipped Rishabh Pant to the wicketkeeper’s berth; a fifth Englishman, Gus Atkinson, narrowly missed out.New Zealand produced arguably the most stunning Test series result of the year (decade? century?) in India, and the stars of their series-opening win in Bengaluru – Rachin Ravindra and Matt Henry – find themselves in the XI, which is rounded off by the ever-consistent Kamindu Mendis and Josh Hazlewood.Girish TS/ESPNcricinfo LtdODIs went off the boil after a World Cup year and 2024 had less than half as many men’s ODIs as there were in 2023. Seven players in the ODI XI come from either Sri Lanka or Afghanistan, who, along with West Indies, were the only Full-Member teams to play 12 or more matches this year.Legspinner Wanindu Hasaranga, the year’s joint-highest wicket-taker, joins the batting trio of Kusal Mendis, Pathum Nissanka and Charith Asalanka – the most prolific run-scorers of the year. The Sri Lankan batters are separated by Rahmanullah Gurbaz in our top four, who is accompanied in the side by his Afghanistan team-mates Azmatullah Omarzai and Mohammad Nabi – the most consistent ODI allrounders of the year.Sherfane Rutherford and Liam Livingstone closed out the middle-order positions ahead of Harry Brook and Keacy Carty, while Taskin Ahmed edged Alzarri Joseph into the pace attack alongside Haris Rauf.Girish TS/ESPNcricinfo LtdOver 1600 men’s T20s were played in 2024. That, coupled with this being a World Cup year, made this among the trickier teams to choose – but the job was made slightly easier with six near-unanimous picks in our XI.Nicholas Pooran was the year’s top run-getter by a country mile, and he struck at nearly 160. Heinrich Klaasen’s absurdly good first half of the year (1125 runs at a strike rate of 172.5 by the end of June) was more than enough to cover a quieter second half. Travis Head was a no-brainer, as was Bumrah. Andre Russell’s sustained all-round chops found him many takers, as did Matheesha Pathirana’s consistent brilliance.And while Rashid Khan didn’t sweep the votes like he often does, it couldn’t stop him from making our T20 XI for the seventh year running. This time he gets the added perk of being captain, having led Afghanistan to the World Cup semi-final.Phil Salt as opener and Tristan Stubbs as finisher were other majority picks, while Arshdeep took the third seamer’s slot (he was the joint-highest wicket-taker in T20Is in 2024 among Full-Member-team bowlers).The last remaining batting spot provided the closest contest: Sanju Samson’s three T20I hundreds late in the year made him a contender, but he was just edged out by Tilak Varma, who had more consistent returns through 2024.Girish TS/ESPNcricinfo LtdThe Player of the final and Player of the Tournament at the T20 World Cup, and the leading wicket-taker of the year, Kerr was one of three near ever-presents in the voting for our women’s T20 XI, alongside Sophie Ecclestone – joint second-highest on the wicket-taking charts – and Ellyse Perry.Kerr and Perry find elite all-round company in our middle order, which is stacked with both pace and spin options. Nat Sciver-Brunt and Marizanne Kapp – both with strike rates exceeding 135 – add heft to the batting line-up, while Deepti Sharma and Hayley Matthews bring riches to the spin department.In addition to being the year’s top run-getter and joint second-highest wicket-taker, Matthews also led West Indies to the World Cup semi-final and Barbados Royals to the WCPL title (while also stepping in as captain briefly for WBBL champions Melbourne Renegades) – which makes her the captain of our team.Shabnim Ismail and Mair (joint third-highest wicket-taker at the World Cup) close out the bowling attack. The opening slots are taken by Beth Mooney – who was a smidge ahead of Richa Ghosh in the race to the wicketkeeper’s berth – and Laura Wolvaardt, who narrowly kept Smriti Mandhana out of the mix.Girish TS/ESPNcricinfo LtdMandhana and Wolvaardt – the year’s most prolific batters in the format by some distance – are united at the top of our ODI XI, which sees Chamari Athapaththu slot in at No. 3 (and as captain).Kapp and Ecclestone bossed the votes in this category too, while Kate Cross’ large haul of wickets made her a near-unanimous pick as well. Amy Jones was a runaway leader as the wicketkeeping option.The remaining spots were all keenly contested. For No. 4, Orla Prendergast of Ireland had the stakes tipped in her favour by her high-impact innings against Sri Lanka and England, making it ahead of Matthews, while Ashleigh Gardner’s spin nicked her a berth ahead of seamer Annabel Sutherland as the last of our allrounders.Alana King partners Gardner and Ecclestone in the spin department, while Megan Schutt forms the pace attack along with Cross and Kapp.More in our look back at 2024