Presenting Wisden’s under-25 Test XI, comprising cricketers who are 25 or below as on March 2, 2024.

Yashasvi Jaiswal – India

8 Tests, 971 runs @ 69.35

It’s tough to believe that Jaiswal is not even 10 Tests old yet he is already a legend in the making. The 22-year-old has already created and broken several records in his short career, including becoming only the third India player to hit two successive double hundreds. He has been in phenomenal form since his debut in July, scoring at least fifty in six of his 15 innings and already has 655 runs in the ongoing England Tests, and needs 120 more in the last game to have the record of Indians with the most runs in a series. Just two months into 2024, Jaiswal already has the most sixes hit by an Indian in a calendar year as well (23).

Abdullah Shafique – Pakistan

17 Tests, 1,330 runs @ 44.02

Arguably one of the most exciting batters to watch out for, Shafique had a stellar start to his career, where he reached fifty six times in his first seven Tests. The only argument against him can be that he has played 14 of his 17 Test matches in Asia, where he averages 50.83. In the other three, in Australia in 2023/24, he averaged 18.33 with four scores below five. However, the 62 at Melbourne, the most any Pakistan batter made in the game, showed why he is regarded so highly.

Shubman Gill – India

24 Tests, 1,382 runs @ 33.70

Gill averages 33.70 in the format and his spot was under the scanner ahead of the England series, but the absence of several regulars allowed him to carry on and he made the most of his chances but three successive fifty-plus knocks. His 104 in the second Test and 91 in the third helped India come back in the series, while his match-winning 52 not out in the fourth helped them navigate a tricky situation.

Cameron Green – Australia

26 Tests, 1,139 runs @ 32.54
32 wickets @ 35.96

Green first showed his potential against India in his debut series in 2020/21 when he top-scored at Sydney with 84. He averaged over 30 in the first four series he played, and averages 49.25 in Asia, where great cricketers have struggled. He is also a handy bowler and has scalped 13 wickets at an average of 15.76 in his first Ashes, in 2021/22. Recently, he smashed an unbeaten 174 against New Zealand, stitching together 116 runs with Josh Hazlewood for the 10th wicket.

Harry Brook – England

12 Tests, 1,181 runs @ 62.15

Herbert Sutcliffe and Wally Hammond are the only two England players who made more runs than Brook in their first 20 Test innings. Brook, who debuted in September 2022, already has four hundreds and seven other fifties, and has been pivotal to England in the ‘Bazball’ era, striking at 92, the highest by anyone with 250 runs. Away from home, he averaged 93.60 in Pakistan and then 82.25 in New Zealand.

Rachin Ravindra – New Zealand

5 Tests, 374 runs @ 41.55
9 wickets @ 33.88

Ravindra, who made waves during a stunning ODI World Cup, is one of four New Zealand batters to have converted their first Test hundreds into double centuries. His 240 earlier this year, while against a weakened South African attack, was a big hundred nevertheless. His fifty against Australia after his team was reduced to 59-3 in a tough run chase highlights his temperament, which first came into focus when he defied the Indian spinners in the Kanpur Test match of 2019/20. Ravindra will also be the second spinner in our XI: he recently picked up 3-33 against the Proteas even when conditions had little assistance.

Joshua Da Silva – West Indies

26 Tests, 992 runs @ 26.10
100 catches, 6 stumpings

There is a dearth of young wicketkeeper-batters, with Rishabh Pant just outside our criterion, realistically restricting our choices to Dhruv Jurel and Da Silva. Jurel debuted against England and has scored 46, 90 and 39 in three innings, all in tough situations. While he has shown maturity to bail his team out, three innings make a small sample size, leaving us with Da Silva. He has one hundred so far, which came against England in 2022. He also made 92 in Bangladesh and, most recently, 79 to help the West Indies to a historic win at the Gabba against Australia.

Marco Jansen – South Africa

13 Tests, 49 wickets @ 22.79
401 runs @ 23.58

Tall and quick, Jansen has the knack for troubling batters with sharp bounce. In 13 Tests, he has gone wicketless just once and has taken three or more wickets nine times. After troubling India in his debut series, he had successful tours of New Zealand and England, picking up 18 wickets in seven innings. He has dismissed Virat Kohli thrice, Rishabh Pant twice, Joe Root twice, and Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head once each. A quality batter down the order, he made 84 not out against India to lift the Proteas from 249-5 to 408 last year.

Shaheen Shah Afridi – Pakistan

29 Tests, 113 wickets @ 26.71

Shaheen has not been at his best of late: he averages 35.70 in eight Tests since the start of 2022, a period where he has also been hit by injuries. He was well below his best on the recent tour of Australia, where he picked up eight wickets at 41.62. Several younger quicks – Shamar Joseph, Gerald Coetzee and William O’Rourke – have fared well of late, but they are yet to establish themselves across conditions. The impressive Jayden Seales averages 24.24 in 10 Tests, but has not played a Test since December 2022. Despite his recent form, Shaheen is still regarded as a threatening fast bowler and his past heroics help him make the XI.

Naseem Shah – Pakistan

17 Tests, 51 wickets @ 33.82

The second-youngest player to take a Test five-for (in 2019), Naseem averaged 35.40 in his first year of international cricket, but that has dropped to 28 since the start of 2022, including 24.69 last year. Injuries have also hampered Naseem, but there is hardly another bowler who is so pleasant to watch when in full flow.

Todd Murphy – Australia

6 matches, 21 wickets @ 25.42

Murphy is a tough pick among several younger spinners in the fray. Despite playing only six Test matches, he edges ahead of Rehan Ahmed, Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley because of decent figures in two countries. He troubled India in his debut innings in Nagpur last year, ending the series with 14 scalps. He then toured England, where he got seven wickets in unhelpful conditions, including four at the Kia Oval. At 25, Rashid Khan was in contention, but he has not played a Test since 2021 and is unlikely to in near future.

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