Sky Sports cricket pundits pick players and moments of 2016
Want to nominate your own moment and player? Do it @SkyCricket
Saturday 31 December 2016 13:59, UK
Happy New Year from everyone at Sky Sports Cricket! It's time for our commentators and pundits to name their favourite moments and players of 2016...
SIR IAN BOTHAM
What a way to start the New Year! Ben Stokes hit the second-fastest double century of all time in Cape Town, where he took the South African bowling attack apart. He destroyed them. He's box office and fantastic to watch. He smashed it to all parts and the South African bowlers didn't know what was going on - they had no answer for it. Power, elegance, timing - he had the whole lot.
Player of 2016 - Ben Stokes: 2016 has seen the emergence of the best all-rounder England have had for a very, very long time. What does he bring to the party for England? Everything. That's what makes him so exciting. He's a fantastic fielder whether he's close to the bat or in the outfield - he catches flies. He was underused in India but he is, in my opinion, a very dangerous bowler; he can bowl magnificently in English conditions but he's mastering it abroad. He is a very, very special talent. Ben Stokes - I love watching you play mate, your great!
NASSER HUSSAIN
My moment is the thrilling climax to division one of the County Championship. Three sides were in contention - Somerset, Middlesex and Yorkshire, with the latter two playing each other at the Home of Cricket, Lord's. Toby Roland-Jones was on a hat-trick and got the wicket, ending up with 10 wickets in the match and took Middlesex to a County Championship victory. It does not get much better than that.
Player of 2016 - Joe Root: He's had a magnificent year at number three; the move to number three has been perfect for him. After a couple of blockers at number three they've gone for an attacking batsman and he has delivered. The highlight was his 254 against Pakistan at Old Trafford. He's scored a fifty in every one of the Tests he's played against India. When Joe Root gets runs, it is a joy to watch.
DAVID LLOYD
A chap on social media said before it all kicked off in that third ODI at Trent Bridge that "England are going to get 280" and I replied "I think they'll get 350" but as they motored along you could see it was going to spiral out of control for Pakistan. Hales, on his home ground, made the most of some inviting boundaries and a pitch as flat as a pancake, on which a bowling side becomes absolutely powerless.
The number of fours and sixes was breath-taking on what was a real batters day. The next question, which crops up on social media all the time, is when will a team score 500? It will definitely, definitely happen, trust me, if there's a perfect storm of conditions, pitch and boundaries.
Player of 2016 - Virat Kohli: He's developed into a fabulous player and a true leader - and he will only get better. India always craves a batting hero from Gavaskar to Tendulkar ....and Kohli has stepped into those shoes.
DAVID GOWER
My moment of the year goes back to the start of the year in Cape Town and that fantastic 258 by Ben Stokes. We've been looking for a man to out-Botham Botham for about 35 years now and that was possibly the moment where we thought we'd found the right man. There is still a long way to go but that was such an awesome display of clean-hitting - and it just kept going and going and going. So it was not so much one moment as a series of moments!
Player of 2016 - Jonny Bairstow: He's a great example of someone who has worked really hard at his game - both the batting and the keeping. Compare him now to his start as a Test cricketer and there's a big, big difference. It shows the value of work, the value of a good attitude. He's improved immeasurably in everything he does and he's determined to keep his slot and the results this year prove it.
MIKE ATHERTON
I'm going for Northamptonshire's victory in the Blast, the second time they've won the T20 in recent years. It was a terrific achievement for a smaller county, not with the biggest resources, a skeletal playing staff. They've got to really husband those resources very carefully and what they've done over the last few years is really target one-day cricket and the T20 in particular. They've found a way to be very competitive in that competition.
Player of 2016 - Jonny Bairstow: He began the year as a county player not yet established in the international team. He had a breakthrough innings at the start of the year in Cape Town when he got his first Test hundred, which was a very emotional moment for him and his family that were there. Since then he's gone from strength to strength, passing 1,000 Test runs in the year. He's had a terrific time of it behind the stumps as well - his wicketkeeping has really come on and now he's firmly established in England's Test side.
BOB WILLIS
I've chosen England's dramatic victory at the Wanderers, Johannesburg. We all remember Stuart Broad's Ashes-clinching spell at Trent Bridge in 2015, well this was just the same - absolutely ripping through South Africa's line-up; the England players revelled in every single moment of it.
Player of 2016 - Ben Stokes: Nothing underlined what a world-class cricketer he is - and what an asset he's going to be for England in the future - than the 258 he scored at Cape Town.
ROB KEY
My favourite moment was the World T20 Final - England against the West Indies. That tournament was as good as any you see in world sport and the final itself had all the drama. You thought England had just done enough by the end but unfortunately for Ben Stokes and England, it was Carlos Brathwaite who smashed the ball out of the park and gave West Indies a victory that no-one expected at the start of that over.
Player of 2016 - Virat Kohli: What a year he's had. He averages over 80 across all three formats but I reckon that in him we've got one of the most important players in modern times in Test cricket, because India now have a captain that values Test cricket and you can see from the crowds out in India - especially in Mumbai where he got a double hundred - how important Test cricket is to him and how he will drag it back into the consciousness of the Indian public.
MARK BUTCHER
I'm going back to my time in India during the IPL for my moment of the year: Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers put 229 on for the second wicket in just 16 overs for Royal Challengers Bangalore. Kohli made 109, AB de Villiers made 129no and the faithful at the Chinnaswamy Stadium were absolutely bouncing. It was an incredible evening.
Player of 2016 - Virat Kohli: He made four hundreds in the IPL, four hundreds in Test match cricket - three of them doubles - and he also, to add to that, scored three ODI hundreds. He's simply unstoppable at the moment and simply the best.
Enjoy a cracking Christmas with Sky Sports as we bring you continued live coverage of England's tour of India, South Africa's Test series against Sri Lanka and the ODIs between New Zealand and Bangladesh.
