In 1888, an unusually rainy summer led to wet pitches which made batting difficult. Peel took 171 first-class wickets, the first time he had passed 100 wickets in a season, at an average of 12.22. He also topped the Yorkshire bowling averages for county matches. His best performance came against Nottinghamshire, when he took eight for 12 in the first innings on the way to fourteen for 33 in the match; for the Players against the Gentlemen, he took six for 34. In the season, Peel scored 669 runs at 13.38. That year, an Australian team toured England and Peel was chosen for his first Test matches in England. The Australian team, missing several key players, won the first Test match before England recovered to win the final two games. Playing all three Tests, Peel took 24 wickets at an average of 7.54. In the decisive third Test, he took seven for 31 in the first Australian innings and finished with match figures of eleven for 68. "Wisden" noted that Peel "bowled remarkably well" in the second Test; it stated that, in the third, "the Australians were helpless against Peel" and judged his overall performance "altogether admirable". Peel's performance in 1888 resulted in his selection, prior to the 1889 season, as one of "Wisden's" "Six Great Bowlers"; this was the first time "Wisden" had made the award which in later years became the prestigious "Wisden" Cricketer of the Year. The citation said: "During his early career was contemporary with Peate, and naturally did not get the same chances that have fallen to his lot during the last two years. He has won his way to the very front rank by sheer merit, and bats and fields so well that he would be worth playing in any eleven if he could not get a wicket." In the summer of 1888, against Australia at Old Trafford, Peel became the first spinner in international cricket to get a wicket on the first ball of a Test innings.