As we embark on a new year with Test cricket’s changing of the guard complete, it’s time for the Doosra to look back at the past 12 months and hand out its gongs. Some are beyond dispute, while others will be hotly contested. Do let us know what you think though, and please keep in mind that these concern only Asian cricket. So no irate emails about the exclusion of the excellent Dale Steyn and the inspirational GC Smith.

Till the final month of the year, Virender Sehwag was in pole position, with a doughty match-saving effort at Adelaide, a blistering 278-ball triple-century in Chennai and an awe-inspiring 201 against Sri Lanka in Galle. Then came Chennai. Again, Sehwag set the tone for India’s finest run chase in a generation, but it was his hero that finished the job. For most of his career, critics have carped about Sachin Tendulkar’s lack of finishing skills. Well, it doesn’t get any better than an unbeaten 103 when you’re chasing 387 on a wearing pitch. And to bring up his century with the last stroke of the game ... that was straight out of Hans Christian Anderson.

Sanath Jayasuriya had a strong case with his 125 in the Asia Cup final against India, but once again it was Tendulkar that delivered the defining innings of the year. In the first CB Series final against Australia, he carried his bat for a sensational 117. India won, and finished off the job a couple of days later, with the master contributing 91. Not bad for an alleged choker, against the team that has won the last three World Cups.

Best T20 innings: Jayasuriya’s evisceration of the Chennai Super Kings attack during the IPL wins this one easily. He took his time to find his IPL feet, but once he did, it was as though the time-machine had taken him back to the halcyon years of 1996. Just a shame that most of the other Mumbai Indians were so ordinary.

The figures (4 for 72) won’t make you gasp, but you had to be at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Colombo to really fathom the excitement generated by the debut of Ajantha Mendis. The carrom ball to Rahul Dravid was sensational, and by series end, he had taken 26 wickets to make one of the game’s most celebrated batting line-ups look second-rate.

A year ago, beating Australia in Australia was still the stuff of dreams for most touring sides. And as India sought to close out the CB Series finals in two games, the most unlikely hero emerged. Praveen Kumar is certainly no speed merchant, but he possesses a wicked slower ball and the ability to wobble it gently off the seam. Despite heroics from James Hopes, he was the difference as India held their nerve. The last man to dismiss Adam Gilchrist, he finished with 4 for 46. In any other year, he would have scooped the award. This though was no ordinary year. It was the year of Mendis. His 6 for 13 in the Asia Cup final made all debate redundant and left some Indian batsmen with nightmares that lasted months.

Take a bow, Lakshmipathy Balaji. Many thought he’d been lost to the game after a series of crippling injuries, and he didn’t get a regular stint with the Chennai Super Kings till the IPL season was well into May. On home turf at Chepauk, he responded with the league’s first hat-trick, against the high-flying Kings XI Punjab. Truly special spells in the Ranji Trophy later in the year suggested that many had been too hasty in writing off his international chances.

Newcomer of the year: Ishant Sharma would have walked it simply for the way he tormented Ricky Ponting, but as we said earlier, 2008 was all about one new entry climbing straight to the top of the charts. Another bauble for Mendis, Moratuwa’s finest.

Watch this space: Shakib Al Hasan took 7 for 36 against New Zealand, and managed several innings of substance in both forms of the game. The boy has immense talent. We can only hope he doesn’t go the way of so many other Asian prodigies.

Mixed emotions: Harbhajan Singh slapping Sreesanth during the IPL. There would have been a fair queue of people with the desire to thwack Sreesanth, but if anything, Harbhajan evoked even stronger reactions. Especially in Australia.

Another no-brainer. The Chennai Test against England had everything, including a final-session finish.

Afterthought: Test cricket in Pakistan. For the first time in nearly four decades, there was no five-day cricket in the country that gave us Fazal Mahmood, Majid Khan, Imran Khan, Javed Miandad and Wasim Akram. World cricket needs a strong Pakistan side, now more than ever. Fingers crossed that the security situation improves over the next 12 months.