Sportskeeda Cricket Awards 2017: Test cricketer of the year

At a time, when there were plenty of voices and detractors around the health of Test cricket, 2017 proved to be a great advert for the format.

The pitches dished out were perfect for the longest format, and barring a couple of strips, the 22-yard all favoured results and this was the reason why Test cricket rekindled hope, once again.

Right through the year, there have been players who were phenomenal for their respective sides and owing to their performances, Test cricket was back on the top pedestal.

Here in this slider, we take a look at five of the top performers in white for the year 2017.

#5 Shakib Al Hasan

2017 started miserably for Bangladesh as they were thrashed by New Zealand in the ODIs as well as the T20I series and things looked dour for them as they donned whites.

Their talisman Shakib AL Hasan then stepped in and smashed a superb 217 to give Bangladesh some hope. However, New Zealand were not going anywhere and a final day collapse handed the hosts victory by seven wickets.

However, Shakib continued to have a brilliant year, both with the bat and ball and was a critical member when Bangladesh outsmarted Sri Lanka in their own backyard and then stunned Australia in Chittagong.

In 14 innings, Shakib scored 665 runs at an average of 47.50. This included three fifties and a couple of centuries.

With the ball, he was even more spectacular, as he picked up 29 wickets in seven matches and chipped in with match-winning performances for Bangladesh whenever the chips were down.