Renowned cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle
excluded Indian Test captain Virat Kohli from his Test team of the year for
2021. Bhogle included Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin, but Kohli is a
notable miss from the XI since he has been going through a lean patch since
2019.

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Regarded as ‘voice of Indian cricket’,
Bhogle picked Rohit and Sri Lanka’s Dimuth Karunaratne as his openers. Rohit,
who started opening the innings in Tests in 2019, has finished the year with
906 runs in 11 matches. The right-handed batter hit two centuries and four
half-centuries while Karunaratne averaged 69.38 while scoring 902 runs in seven
matches.

Labuschagne Bhogle’s pick for No. 3

Australian youngster Marnus Labuschagne,
who has been in fantastic form of late, is Bhogle’s No. 3. Labuschagne has so
far scored 525 runs in five matches at an average of 75.00 this year.

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Joe Root and Fawad Alam are next on
Bhogle’s list. Root has scored 1680 runs so far with the help of six centuries.
Rishabh Pant, the fourth-highest run-scorer in 2021, has been named the
wicketkeeper-batter. He has scored 706 runs in 12 matches this year.

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Holder, Ashwin Bhogle’s all-rounders

Jason Holder and Ashwin are two
all-rounders in the team. Holder, who lost Test captaincy earlier this year,
scored 362 runs and took 22 wickets in eight Tests. Ashwin, the only bowler to
take fifty wickets in 2021, has 52 wickets to his credit. So far, he has scored
337 runs at an average of 28.08.

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Shaheen Afridi, Anrich Nortje and Kyle
Jamieson are three pacers in Bhogle’s Test team of 2021. Afridi has 47 scalps
while Nortje dismissed 25 batters in 5 Tests. Jamieson, who played 5 Tests in
2021, scalped 27 wickets.

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Harsha Bhogle’s Test team of 2021: Rohit
Sharma, Dimuth Karunaratne, Marnus Labuschagne, Joe Root, Fawad Alam, Rishabh
Pant (wk), Jason Holder, Ravi Ashwin, Shaheen Afridi, Anrich Nortje, Kyle
Jamieson