In a season that generally favoured bowlers, picking our attack in cricket.com.au's best XI for the 2023-24 season proved difficult
Our Sheffield Shield Team of the Tournament
After 10 enthralling rounds of Marsh Sheffield Shield action, the cricket.com.au editorial team has picked the best XI players to make an unofficial team of the year.
As always, there was plenty of debate, and you can listen to the reasonings behind each selection on the Unplayable Podcast episode below before making up your own mind!
1. Cameron Bancroft
Matches: 10 | Runs: 778 | Ave: 48.62 | 100s: 3 | HS: 122
The WA opener continued to churn out the runs despite it being one of the hardest seasons for batters, and openers in particular, in recent times. As a result, the prolific right-hander's strike rate dropped to a four-year low but he still hit three centuries; one at the WACA Ground (against Victoria) and more impressively two away from home (against South Australia and Tasmania). Bancroft was comfortably last season's highest run-scorer (945) and would have been again this season had it not been for the amazing campaign of Beau Webster.
2. Sam Whiteman (c)
Matches: 10 | Runs: 658 | Ave: 38.70 | 100s: 2 | HS: 188
Whiteman partners Bancroft at the top of the order in this team after a career-best season with the bat, making it three straight seasons with over 600 runs for the leftie. Fittingly Whiteman and Bancroft have become WA's most prolific opening pair with 3,567 runs in partnership, overtaking the benchmark set by Geoff Marsh and Mike Veletta (3,470). The highest score of Whiteman's campaign was his 188 against eventual-finalists Tasmania in October, while he also tonned up against NSW in February. Whiteman has been given the captaincy of this team after leading WA to their third-straight home Shield final and second under his leadership.
3. Nathan McSweeney
Matches: 10 | Runs: 762 | Ave: 40.10 | 100s: 3 | HS: 117
A season that began with McSweeney captaining Australia A brought strong results right throughout the Sheffield Shield season as the Queenslander-turned-South Australian amassed 762 runs, the third-most in the competition. The right-hander batted exclusively at No.4 before Christmas but returned after the Big Bash break at No.3 and cemented his spot there with a superb century against Tasmania that was instrumental in securing the win and knocking the Tigers out of top spot ahead of the final. His excellent season also included tons against NSW and Queensland.
4. Charlie Wakim
Matches: 10 | Runs: 631 | Ave: 33.21 | 100s: 2 | HS: 148
One of quiet achievers of this XI, Wakim's 631 runs places him sixth on the run-scorer's list for 2023-24. The 32-year-old was a late bloomer on the domestic scene but has taken his opportunity in Tasmania's No.3 slot with both hands this season, carving out centuries against South Australia and Victoria. It's a big turnaround for Wakim who managed only one Shield match last season and prior to 2023-24, his most productive season was 2020-21, when he scored 308 runs in seven games.
5. Ollie Davies
Matches: 7 | Runs: 670 | Ave: 67.00 | 100s: 3 | HS: 131
The uber-talented Davies had a breakout season in the Sheffield Shield and turned heads with his attacking strokeplay (strike rate of 81), despite starting the season out of the NSW XI. Entering the season with only two first-class matches under his belt, Davies' first crack of the season came in November against reigning champions WA, and he proceeded to smash 129 off only 143 balls. The big scores continued after Christmas, reaching three figures against both SA (116) and Queensland (131). His batting average of 67 is the highest in the competition and at only 23 years of age Davies is undoubtedly the find of the season.
6. Beau Webster
Matches: 10 | Runs: 914 | Bat ave: 65.28 | 100s: 3 | HS: 167no | Wickets: 26 | Bowl ave: 28.46 | BBI: 4-32
The Tigers talisman has put together one of the best individual Sheffield Shield campaigns in history, becoming just the fourth player ever to score 900 runs and take 25 wickets in season.
So often Webster has put his team on his back to haul them back into the contest, no more so than during their penultimate round clash against Victoria to secure Tasmania's spot in the final when his second-innings 167no in a 153-run last wicket partnership with Riley Meredith set the Vics 442 to win, which they got within 57 of on the final day. The 30-year-old finished the home-and-away season as the competition's leading run-scorer, while his 25 wickets also put him inside the top 15 bowlers for 2023-24.
7. Jimmy Peirson (wk)
Matches: 10 | Runs: 512 | Ave: 30.11 | 100s: 1 | HS: 106 | Ct: 43 | St: 1
Queensland's captain features for the second year running in our team after another consistent season for the Bulls. Peirson's glovework again was a feature as he finished with the most dismissals in the competition, went past 250 career dismissals in the Shield and took what he believes to be the "number one" catch of his career – this hanger to remove Nathan McSweeney.
His second-innings century in his first match of the season ensured Queensland walked away from their clash with NSW with a draw. He passed 50 on three other occasions and was the only wicketkeeper in the competition to score more than 500 runs.
8. Joel Paris
Matches: 7 | Wickets: 37 | Ave: 14.08 | SR: 33.94 | 5WI: 2 | 10WM: 1 | BBI: 6-74
Paris has been the two-time reigning champion's most consistent and prolific bowler over the past three seasons and this summer was no exception. His 37 wickets in his seven games so far is his best return for a Sheffield Shield season across his career, with his average and strike rate both lower than his career mark of 19.86 and 45.4 respectively. He claimed multiple wickets in every innings except one, with his best performance his first match of the season, a sensational 11-wicket haul (6-74 and 5-39) against South Australia on his return from a hamstring injury in late October.
9. Chris Tremain
Matches: 10 | Wickets: 50 | Ave: 15.90 | SR: 38.24 | 5WI: 3 | BBI: 6-20
We're not sure that even Tremain himself would have believed he could produce something better than his 2016-17 Shield season – where he took 51 wickets and was named player of the tournament – but he may have just done that. The experienced campaigner led all comers with 50 wickets at the ridiculous average of 15.90 and dominated at his home ground, the Sydney Cricket Ground, where he captured 17 wickets at an average of 11.12. Tremain took three five-wicket hauls and found himself on a hat-trick five times throughout the season – sadly he wasn't able to get that third consecutive wicket on any occasion.
10. Scott Boland
Matches: 6 | Wickets: 34 | Ave: 15.32 | SR: 40.29 | 5WI: 1 | BBI: 5-41
Boland managed six matches around his Test squad duties and despite not playing the full 10 matches he still finished eighth on the wicket-taker's list. When he did play for Victoria, he was among the most consistent in the competition: the fewest wickets he took in a match was three, and the most he took was eight. The Vics' late season stumble was due in no part to the Test capped quick, who took eight wickets in their rain-affected draw with NSW and another eight in their final-round loss to WA. His economy rate of 2.28 for the season was also the lowest of all bowlers to send down more than 50 overs.
11. Corey Rocchiccioli
Matches: 10 | Wickets: 39 | Ave: 29.92 | SR: 60.92 | 4WI: 4 | BBI: 4-54
The competition's most successful spinner this season by some distance, Rocchiccioli has harnessed the WACA Ground's favourable pace and bounce and turned it into a weapon of his own. The off-spinner has taken 28 of his 39 wickets this season at the famous Perth venue, with his 2023-24 campaign the best by a WA spinner since Bruce Yardley also claimed 39 in 1982-83. The 26-year-old has taken three or more wickets in seven of 19 innings this season with his best performance coming in the penultimate round against Queensland at the WACA where he took four in each innings to finish with match figures of 8-163.
12th. Ben Manenti
Matches: 10 | Runs: 609 | Bat ave: 38.06 | 50s: 5 | HS: 86 | Wickets: 13 | Bowl ave: 64.30 | BBI: 3-19
After establishing himself in the Redbacks' best XI last season, Manenti became one of South Australia's most important and reliable performers with the bat in 2023-24. Batting for most of the season at No.8 (where he scored 401 runs), Manenti regularly ran out of partners but had moved up to No.6 by the end of the campaign. Although his batting blossomed (he finished with the seventh-most runs in the competition), his off-spin didn't have the same impact as it did in 2022-23, dropping from 23 wickets to only 13 this season.
Honourable mentions
Fergus O'Neill
Matches: 9 | Wickets: 40 | Ave: 17.25 | SR: 43.8 | 5WI: 3 | 10WM: 1 | BBI: 5-28
Gabe Bell
Matches: 8 | Wickets: 39 | Ave: 18.69 | SR: 38.35 | 5WI: 2 | 10WM: 1 | BBI: 6-39
Nathan McAndrew
Matches: 9 | Wickets: 48 | Ave: 18.58 | SR: 39.62 | 5WI: 4 | 10WM: 1 | BBI: 6-41
Nic Maddinson
Matches: 4 | Runs: 361 | Ave: 51.57 | 100s: 3 | HS: 109
The Marsh Sheffield Shield final will be broadcast live on Fox Cricket and Kayo Sports, as well as live streamed free on cricket.com.au and the CA Live app.
Sheffield Shield 2023-24 standings
| Team | M | W | L | D | N/R | Ded. | Bat | Bowl | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1
WA
|
10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5.53 | 9.4 | 47.93 |
|
2
TAS
|
10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6.06 | 8.3 | 47.36 |
|
3
NSW
|
10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6.31 | 9 | 42.31 |
|
4
VIC
|
10 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4.74 | 8.2 | 38.94 |
|
5
SA
|
10 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5.19 | 9.3 | 33.49 |
|
6
QLD
|
10 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3.54 | 8.3 | 25.84 |
M: Matches played
W: Wins
L: Losses
D: Drawn
N/R: No results
Ded.: Deductions
Bat: Batting Bonus
Bowl: Bowling Bonus
PTS: Total points