The 10 best cricketers in 10 years' time - which future stars will be dominating in a decade?

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It’s been a thrilling few weeks for Test cricket, with gripping series in India, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand all in quick time.

While doom-mongers continue to predict its decline, the last few months have shown what Test cricket can still be - and what might be on its way in the future.

There are a raft of exciting rising stars ready to break through, and inject new life into the oldest format.

Here, we rank the top 10 most likely to be dominating in 2034 - from 10 to 1 by likelihood of success.

10. Vaibhav Suryavanshi (India, age in 2034: 23)

Test record: none

Despite not yet playing Test cricket Vaibhav Suryavanshi is being tipped for a massive future

At just 13, the teenage sensation has already made his mark - including an unbeaten triple hundred 

India’s 13-year-old sensation has no Test record to speak of, granted, but watch this space. 

He made his Ranji Trophy debut for Bihar at the age of 12, scored a 58-ball hundred for India Under 19s against Australia, and recently picked up over £100,000 when he was signed by Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League.

Oh, and he once made an unbeaten triple hundred. How long will it be before India’s selectors pair him up with Yashasvi Jaiswal at the top of the order?

9. Rachin Ravindra (New Zealand, age in 2034: 35)

Test record: 14 matches, 995 runs, 38.26 batting average, 2 centuries, 240 highest score

Don’t be fooled by his mediocre series so far against England: Ravindra is a star, as his Bangalorean dad hoped he would be when he named him after Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar.

His recent century against India in the city of his heritage set his team up for their historic 3-0 win, and his footwork against spin is nimble and decisive.

Articulate and angelic, Ravindra can be the face of New Zealand cricket for years – so long as he irons out the soft dismissals.

8. Will O’Rourke (New Zealand, age in 2034: 33)

Test record: 9 matches, 32 wickets, 25.71 bowling average, 2 five-wicket hauls, 5-34 best figures

On paper, O’Rourke – born in Kingston, Surrey – has taken a pummelling at the hands of England. But series figures of six wickets at 53 do not remotely reflect how well he has bowled.

Rachin Ravindra has had a quiet series so far against England but is a star named for two of India's greatest ever batters

Will O'Rourke's height saw him referred to as a ‘6ft 9in giant bowling rockets’ by Ben Stokes

He has pace, height and bounce, and was referred to by Ben Stokes as a ‘6ft 9in giant bowling rockets’ after Joe Root scooped him for the boundary that brought up his hundred at Wellington.

He already has a five-for in Sri Lanka, plus seven wickets to help beat India at Bangalore. 

And, one day, he will get his own back on the country of his birth.

7. Kamindu Mendis (Sri Lanka, age in 2034: 36)

Test record: 10 matches, 1,110 runs, 74.00 batting average, 5 centuries, 182* highest score

Even factoring in scores of 13, 10, 48 and 35 during Sri Lanka’s Test series in South Africa, Mendis has a batting average of 74 – and in England this summer equalled Don Bradman by reaching 1,000 runs in 13 games.

When he broke on to the international scene as a 20-year-old during a T20 game against England, he was regarded as a party piece, a spinner able to bowl with both arms.

But five Test hundreds in his first 13 innings told a more rounded story. From nowhere, he is the Sri Lankan wicket opponents crave most.

Kamindu Mendis will be 36 in 2034 but he already has five Test tons in his first 13 innings

6. Marco Jansen (South Africa, age in 2034: 34)

Test record: 15 matches, 63 wickets, 21.53 bowling average, 2 five-wicket hauls, 7-13 best figures

Tall left-arm swing bowlers have almost gone out of fashion, but Jansen – who can bat a bit too – is resurrecting the genre. (It’s why England were so keen to have a look at Josh Hull.)

Figures of seven for 13 helped skittle Sri Lanka for 42 in Durban recently, and took his Test record to 63 at 21.

Now, South Africa are on the brink of the reaching the final of the World Test Championship, which – for all its flaws – has given teams like them the chance to have a say in a format that has threatened to leave them behind.

5. Jacob Bethell (England, age in 2034: 31)

Test record: 2 matches, 172 runs, 57.33 batting average, 0 centuries, 96 highest score

A couple of weeks ago, Bethell was the white-ball hitter whose Test selection at No 3 was a disgrace to the English system.

Marco Jansen's Test-best figures of seven for 13 helped skittle Sri Lanka for just 42 in Durban

Jacob Bethell's brilliant knocks against New Zealand have vindicated his surprise selection

Now, after a 37-ball half-century in Christchurch and a composed 96 in Wellington, he looks suspiciously like the future of English cricket.

As much as anyone, Bethell typifies the new breed of batsman, capable of adapting across the formats.

And his love of Test cricket, honed while watching the 2010-11 Ashes in his native Barbados, bodes well for the format’s future.

Now England just have to work out where he bats: with Jamie Smith due back in the new year, they will have a decision to make.

4. Tristan Stubbs (South Africa, age in 2034: 34)

Test record: 7 matches, 490 runs, 40.83 batting average, 2 centuries, 122 highest score

For a while, it looked as if Stubbs was going to be the posterboy for a changing world. 

Signed by Mumbai Indians before he had even played for South Africa, he was depicted as the white-ball wunderkind with neither the time nor the inclination for the red.

But a triple century for Eastern Province against KwaZulu-Natal in February helped shift perceptions, and he has marked his first year as South Africa’s No 3/4 with centuries against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Few players in the world hit the ball so hard, so thrillingly.

There are very few batters who can hit the ball so hard, so thrillingly as Tristan Stubbs

3. Sam Konstas (Australia, age in 2034: 29)

Test record: none

When Konstas began the new Sheffield Season with 152 and 105 for New South Wales against South Australia, only his fifth first-class game, the latent excitement in Australia’s cricket community grew further.

When, earlier this month, he scored 107 off 97 balls in a Prime Minister’s XI total of 240 against the Indian tourists in Canberra, the rest of the world sat up and took note too.

While Australia are trying to turn Nathan McSweeney into a Test opener, the solution may be staring them in the face.

2. Harry Brook (England, age in 2034: 35)

Test record: 23 matches, 2,280 runs, 61.62 batting average, 8 centuries, 317 highest score

Sam Konstas' blistering start to the new Sheffield Season fanned excitement in Australia

Brook’s appetite for cricket and run-scoring means there is no reason he won’t be going strong in 2034, still giving himself room outside leg stump to launch the quicks over extra cover, and doing his best to prove the Bazballers aren’t flat-track bullies.

By then, we’ll know if his astonishing overseas record (seven Test hundreds from 17 innings, and an average of 89) has survived visits to countries other than Pakistan and New Zealand.

Either way, it’s hard to imagine he won’t be closing in on whatever tally his fellow self-deprecating Yorkshireman Joe Root ends up with.

1. Yashasvi Jaiswal (India, age in 2034: 32)

Test record: 16 matches, 1,592 runs, 54.89 batting average, 4 centuries, 214* highest score

India’s opener has spent his brief career putting others in their place: Ben Duckett, for claiming Jaiswal had learned from England; and a growing number of Test attacks.

All this has endeared him to Indian fans. And look at his numbers: His four Test centuries have all been biggies: 171 against West Indies, 209 and 214 not out against England, and 161 to set up victory over Australia in Perth.

Left-handed and lethal, he will be murdering attacks for years to come.

It is hard to believe Harry Brook won't be pushing whatever tally Joe Root ends up on in 2034

Left-handed and lethal, India's Yashasvi Jaiswal will be murdering attacks for years to come

If you missed the recent T20 Global Super League in Guyana – a tournament motivated by the Guyanese government’s clamour for international attention while Venezuela makes claims to its territory (and oil) – then you missed a sign of the times.

Speaking before his side’s game against Rangpur Riders, the 45-year-old South African leg-spinner Imran Tahir had an axe to grind.

Now, Tahir has seen the world, and then some: Guyana Amazon Warriors were, according to ESPNcricinfo, his 58th different team, if you include county second XIs. Trouble was, the Riders were among the other 57.

‘I played for Rangpur Riders last year in the Bangladesh Premier League and haven’t got all my contract money,’ he said. 

‘So that’s motivating me in today’s game. I want to do really well against them. We want to show them that Guyana welcomes them… and that we’re better humans than them…’

Gallingly for Tahir, the Riders beat the Warriors by 15 runs.

There was a mind-boggling finish to the Sheffield Shield match in Hobart, where Tasmania needed 429 to beat South Australia. At 422 for six with nine balls to go, they were cruising.

But they lost three wickets, and with a ball left were 426 for nine, at which point Lawrence Neil-Smith managed a single to cover. An honourable draw? Not quite.

South African leg-spinner Imran Tahir had an axe to grind against the Rangpur Riders

For reasons still unexplained, No 11 Riley Meredith set off for a non-existent (and entirely pointless) second – and was run out by the jubilant South Australians, who are chasing their first Shield title in 29 years.

Had Meredith forgotten a draw was possible? No matter: he is now an internet sensation.

Do the Bazballers really not care about stats?

Maybe he was just being polite, but when it was pointed out to Ben Stokes that he had overtaken Mike Brearley’s 18 wins as Test captain from the same number of games (31), he paused, smiled, and gave a one-word answer: ‘Sweet.’