2. Haseeb Hameed (England)
The Lancastrian; Haseeb Hameed caught everyone’s attention with his solidity, steadiness, patience, technicality, strong temperament, class and courage. In this T20 age of flashiness and flamboyance, the 19-year-old Hameed took us back in time, when cricket use to be more about batting for long hours, grinding runs, defending day in, day out and just playing proper cricket. Also known as “Baby Boycott,” Haseeb started off his Test journey with scores of 31 and 82 and did justice to all the hype created by him. The way he tackled Indian spinners, that too at their den was the high point of his batting.
His 156-ball 59 run-knock at Mohali, apparently with his finger ‘in two pieces,’ was demonstration of grit and courage at the highest and earned him critical acclaim from experts, his team-mates as well as the opposition skipper. In 3 Tests, the English opener stroked 219 runs at 43.80.
