All-time ODI all-rounders XI?

#10 Kapil Dev

Kapil Dev bowled his heart out on the lifeless pitches of India

Even if the annals of the Indian cricket history are vetted after a hundred years from now, it may still be impossible to find a better all-rounder than Kapil. Since his retirement in 1994, the Indian think-tank tried a number of players to fill the great man's shoes but none managed to be even half as good as Kapil.

He is not just India's greatest all-rounder but its greatest pace bowler too. That he honed his skills on Indian pitches, which have always been massively favourable to spinners but morale-shattering to the pace bowlers, makes his story all the more remarkable. He had little support from the rest and had to carry the entire burden of the team's pace bowling on his shoulders.

He took 253 scalps in 225 matches at an average of 27.45. In an era when most of the batsmen were happy to score at a strike-rate of 70, Kapil made his runs at a rate of 95 runs per hundred balls. The 'Haryana Hurricane' will be one of the vital cogs in the pace bowling wheel of this great side. He was a great captain too and led his unit of underdogs to a glorious victory in the 1983 World Cup.

#11 Shaun Pollock

Shaun Pollock was an all-rounder par excellence

An automatic choice.

Shaun Pollock was to South Africa what Glenn McGrath was to Australia. Just like McGrath, Pollock opened the bowling for his team, always operated in the zone of 'perfect line and length', without giving any freebies to the batsmen. He rarely bowled bad deliveries, compelling the batsmen to re-think their scoring ideas. Along with Allan Donald, he formed one of the most fearsome and memorable bowling partnerships in cricket.

Pollock grabbed 393 wickets in 303 matches but what is most astonishing is his economy rate. No modern-day bowler, except the great Curtly Ambrose, gave away fewer runs per over. In an era when economy rates of bowlers invariably crossed the 4-runs-per-over mark, he managed to give away only 3.67 runs per over.

Bowling in such a miserly manner would not have grabbed eyeballs in the 1970s and 1980s but to do so in the 1990s is phenomenal.

His bowling alone would have made him a great but his batting was extremely valuable too, fetching him in excess of 3000 runs in both formats. He possessed the ability to score quick runs, something that will be very handy in the death overs.