Top 10 bowling all-rounders of the last four decades

Nearly two decades have passed since we last saw the likes of Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and Ian Botham entertaining us through their all-round abilities. The fact that we remember them even now, when we talk of all-rounders, clearly indicates that we are yet to see players of such calibre since their retirement.

It does not mean we don’t have players who can excel in both bowling and batting currently. In fact, there are more than a handful of such individuals in each and every team. Not long ago, we had Andrew Flintoff and before him, we had Chris Cairns. Among the current set of cricketers, it is difficult to ignore Shane Watson. But the reality is that there are only a select few.

While the qualities of the present bunch of all-rounders are unquestionable, we cannot equate them with the fabulous four whose names have been referred to at the beginning of this article. The all-rounders can primarily be categorized into two types – they can either be the “batsmen who can bowl” or the “bowlers who can bat.” We have plenty of cricketers in the current era from the first category, but we seem to lack players belonging to the second category. You will probably be tempted to name players like Angelo Mathews, Brett Lee, Jacob Oram, Shahid Afridi, James Franklin, Daniel Vettori, Irfan Pathan and a few more of them. But I am hesitant to brand them as genuine bowling all-rounders.

A genuine bowling all-rounder should be a front-line bowler or, at least, should have the capability to bowl as first change; and as a batsman, he should be able to bat down the order with the ability to hit big shots all round the wicket. To make things simple, you can just look at the world cup winning Indian squad of 1983, where we had Kapil Dev, Roger Binny and Madan Lal donning the all-rounders’ roles to perfection. Such all-rounders lengthen the batting line up and if a team has such players, selection problems like the ones India experienced in the recently concluded T20 World Cup, might never arise.

Without further ado, let me quickly run through the list of top ten bowling all-rounders of the last four decades or so:

Kapil Dev

Nicknamed the ‘Haryana Hurricane’, he was the first genuine fast bowling quickie India ever produced. He is the first and only player to have achieved a rare double of 5000 test runs and 400 wickets. At one point of time, he held the world record for both, maximum ODI and Test wickets. Coming very low down the order in 1990 in a Test match, he avoided the follow-on in England by hitting off spinner Hemmings for four consecutive sixes. Of course, much has been heard and written about the 175 runs which he scored in the 1983 World Cup against Zimbabwe. A real legend.

Ian Botham

This veteran Englishman, who was a contemporary of Kapil Dev, has 14 test centuries to his credit as a batsman, and 383 wickets as the leading bowler for his side. Capable of playing anywhere in the batting line up, he amassed 5200 runs in Tests. He was the fastest to achieve the double of 300 wickets and 3000 runs in Tests. He still remains the best bowler ever for England, in spite of the fact they had a bowler like Bob Willis; simply because even now, as I write this article, his tally of 383 wickets in Tests is yet to be surpassed by anyone from their country.

Richard Hadlee:

This legendary fast bowler was once the holder of world record for number of wickets taken (431) in Tests until it was overhauled by Kapil Dev. He was hailed as the greatest fast bowler during his playing days. Although he was not as destructive as Botham or Kapil Dev with his batting, he was more than a useful batsman for his team with two well-compiled Test centuries. He had single-handedly won many matches for his team as a bowler and he was also the first cricketer to have ever touched the landmark of 400 Test wickets.

Imran Khan:

Trained as a fast bowler on the slow wickets of the subcontinent, he became one of the best bowlers Pakistan has ever produced. He also had been very confident as a batsman and that made him to swap himself to bat at the top of the order, according to situations, especially in ODI matches. He has more than 3500 runs in both ODIs and Test matches. Everybody will still remember him coming to bat at No.3 position in the world cup final against England, down under in 1992. He has a total tally of 362 wickets in tests.

Wasim Akram:

Even till the end of his career, no one ever dominated him with the bat. There were a few instances when Lara and Sachin had managed doing it but not convincingly enough, according to their standards. He was one of the exponents of reverse swing alongside his team-mate Waqar Younis. He has hit 3 test centuries in his elite career and considering the fact that he used to bat much lower down the order, it should be noted as a commendable achievement. He probably is the best left arm fast bowler ever produced in the world.

Shaun Pollock:

Statistically speaking, as a bowler, Shaun Pollock, in tests and ODIs, is easily better than the fabulous four all-rounders of 1980s. But as a batsman, he is not quite up there and that is the reason for me to bring him in the middle of this list rather than ranking him right on top. But he has batted much lower down the order for South Africa and that could possibly be one of the reasons for him not to have scored as much runs as he should have. But taking 421 wickets and scoring 3781 runs in tests is not an ordinary achievement by any stretch of imagination. He has hit two hundreds in tests and a lone hundred in ODIs.

Andrew Flintoff:

If not for his injuries, which eventually shortened his career, he would have become the greatest all-rounder of all times, ahead of Sir Garfield Sobers too. He used to bowl at extraordinary pace, plus also used to be one of the most destructive batsmen for their team. One cannot conclude mentioning him without talking about the year 2005. The Ashes, which was eluding England since a very long time, finally came under their grasp primarily because of the all-round abilities of this great cricketer. He struck five centuries in tests and 3 in ODIs, all of them coming at a brisk pace.

Chris Cairns:

After the exit of the irreplaceable Sir Richard Hadlee, it was Chris Cairns who led the pace attack for the Kiwis. Also, when New Zealand showed signs of weakness as a batting side, once the great Martin Crowe quit cricket, he took charge of his team as a batsman too. This way, he was able to enact a dual role in the absence of the two legends. He had been a front-line bowler for his team for most of the time and as a batsman, he used to clobber balls all over the park. He scored five centuries in tests and four in ODIs with a reasonably good average for an all-rounder. Also, he has more than 200 wickets in both formats of the game.

Abdul Razzaq:

This Pakistani was one of those cricketers who bowl deceptively quick. At times, his in-swinging yorkers becomes tough to be countered by any batsman. He is still the youngest cricketer to have taken a test match hat-trick, which was against Sri Lanka. In 1999 World Cup, he was made to bat at No.3 position rather surprisingly, but he handled the situation pretty well. As far as his batting is concerned, the thing that comes to everyone’s mind is the over in which he hit five consecutive fours off the bowling of Glenn Mcgrath, in the best of three finals in Australia. He has, so far, hit three centuries in both tests and ODIs.

Shane Watson:

This Queensland all rounder is an Australian version of Andrew Flintoff or at least, was projected so at the beginning. Though, as a bowler, he has never been as good as the Englishman, his batting has always been one of the best. He takes wickets, no doubt, but also gives away runs. He has had five-wicket hauls thrice in test matches, though. He has scored so far two centuries in tests and six in ODIs. Probably, if he can get through his problem of falling to injuries frequently, he may rise above the rest as the best bowling all-rounder ever.

Reason for excluding Kallis:

Having ranked bowling all rounders, it is my responsibility to let the world know why Kallis’ name did not feature here. He is a cricketer who can seal his place in any side just as a bowler. However, his batting is so good that it overshadows his potential as a bowler. So, we can neither consider him as a bowler who can bat, or as a batsman who can bowl. It can be said that he is a mixture of say, “Kapil Dev and Rahul Dravid.” Now, how can we rank him in that case? So, I have chosen to leave the South African alone.