AUSTRALIA’S beleaguered cricketers have suffered another embarrassment after they were snubbed from Wisden’s World Test XI for 2010, making it the first time no Aussies have been included in the team, which features five Indians and two Englishmen. Sachin Tendulkar leads the way as Wisden’s leading Cricketer in the World after a year in which he scored seven Test centuries, helping India cement their place at the top of the world rankings.
The 37-year-old who became the first man to score a double century in a one-day international and recently helped India win the World Cup on home soil, appears for the third consecutive year, as do team-mates MS Dhoni and Virender Sehwag, while VVS Laxman and Zaheer Khan also make the cut.
England bowlers Graeme Swann and James Anderson were selected, thanks in large part to their excellent performance during the victorious Ashes performance in Australia.
They are rated the second and third-best Test bowlers in the world behind South Africa’s Dale Steyn.
The Wisden Almanack was first published in 1864, and is considered the bible of cricket by fans and players, while it first introduced the World Test XI in 2008.
WISDEN TEST XI 2010: Virender Sehwag (India), Tamim Iqbal (Bangladesh), Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka), Sachin Tendulkar (India), Jacques Kallis (South Africa), VVS Laxman (India), MS Dhoni (India, captain and wicketkeeper), Graeme Swann (England), Dale Steyn (South Africa), Zaheer Khan (India), James Anderson (England).
Wisden Test XI 2009: Sehwag, Andrew Strauss (England), Gautam Gambhir (India), Tendulkar, Sangakkara, Kallis, Dhoni, Mitchell Johnson (Australia), Swann, Peter Siddle (Australia), Anderson.
Wisden Test XI 2008: Sehwag, Graeme Smith (South Africa). Ricky Ponting (Australia), Tendulkar, Kevin Pietersen (England), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies), Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh (India), Johnson, Steyn, Zaheer Khan.