Top 6 current batsmen who excel across all 3 formats of cricket

There are a very few batsmen left in cricket who are equally adept across all the three formats of the game. Each format requires a different skill set, and this is why teams, by and large have started picking players in accordance with the requirement of the format.With that being the case, the handful of players who are very important to the side irrespective of the format deserve huge credit for being versatile enough to be able to change their game depending on the format they are playing.These are the top 6 batsmen in world cricket currently who possess the necessary skills to play all 3 formats:

#6 Hashim Amla

The fact that Hashim Amla is the only batsman apart from AB de Villiers to be averaging over 50 in both Test and ODI cricket gives you a fair indication of his genuine class across formats. Amla’s illustrious numbers in Test cricket of over 6000 runs from 79 Tests at 51.32 leads to people overlooking his record in ODI cricket, which has been nothing short of a revelation.

From 95 matches, he has scored 4,621 runs at 54.36 and has a strike-rate just under 90. He is also the fastest to 4000 runs in the history of ODI cricket, having got there head of greats like Viv Richards and Brian Lara.

Even in T20 cricket of late, there have been signs of him finding his feet as he scored 185 runs from 5 matches at the recent World T20 in Bangladesh at an average of 37 and a strike-rate of 131.20 to lead South Africa’s charge to the semi-final of the competition before eventually bowing out to India.

#5 Kane Williamson

New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson is one of the brightest young prospects in the world game today, and it should only be a matter of time before Williamson goes on to etch his name among the greats of New Zealand cricket. He has scored approximately 2500 runs from 34 Tests at an average just over 40 after bursting onto the scene with a century on debut against India at Ahmedabad in 2010 and is nicely poised to add a lot more to his tally in the years to come.

Despite being a sweet timer of the cricket ball, he was pigeonholed as a Test specialist early on but he has shown his ability to adapt subsequently. While he does not possess a power game, he does have the uncanny ability of finding gaps through the smallest of spaces and uses it to his advantage in the shorter versions.

He has been in outstanding form for Northern Knights in the ongoing Champions League T20, having already racked up 223 runs – including two 50s and one 100 - at an average of 55.75 and a sparkling strike-rate of 159.28.

#4 David Warner

David Warner’s transformation over the last 12 months to become the consistent cricketer that he has become across all formats of the game has been quite remarkable. There was a danger of Warner losing his way after the controversy surrounding his brawl with Joe Root during the Ashes in England last year, but he has changed his entire training regime since then and has reaped the rewards. He is currently in the ICC Top 10 Batsmen in both Test and T20 cricket.

His 523 runs from 5 Tests played an instrumental role in Australia emphatically regaining the Ashes 5-0 Down Under and, then, went on to better his efforts on the tour of South Africa by scoring 543 runs from just 3 Tests at 90.50. And all these runs were in a format that he was labeled not capable of playing just as recently as a couple of years ago.

#3 Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli might have had a diabolical Test tour of England recently, but there is little doubting Kohli’s standing as an international batsman in Test, ODI and T20 cricket.

Despite the recent Test series, after all, Kohli still averages just a touch under 40 in Test cricket which goes to show how good he was prior to the setback that he suffered. He has scored Test centuries in Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, and it should only be a matter of time before he finds his way back and starts scoring on a consistent basis in Test cricket.

And while Kohli’s Test record is good, his ODI record till date is incredible. The 25-year old has scored 5,688 runs from 138 ODIs at an average of 51.24 and, with 19 hundreds, is already 8th on the list of most hundreds in ODIs.

As far as T20 cricket is concerned, there were doubts surrounding Kohli’s rate of scoring initially, leading him to be omitted from the Indian squad for the 2010 World T20 in the Caribbean. Since then, however, he has proved his critics wrong with some destructive performances in the limited-overs game – most notably his 100 off 52 balls in an ODI against Australia last year which is the fastest hundred by an Indian in 50-over cricket – and become an integral part of the T20 side as well. In 2014 World T20, he was the highest run-getter and won the Man of the Tournament award

#2 Faf du Plessis

Faf du Plessis made his ODI debut only in January 2011 and his Test debut came even later, in November 2012. But he has already established himself as one of the lynchpins of the South African unit through his consistently telling contributions with the bat.

He started off his Test career with a bang, making 78 in the 1st innings of the Adelaide Test in 2012 and then following it up with a dogged match-saving effort of 110 from 376 deliveries. And his Test career has continued on an upward trajectory thereafter, averaging 52.58 from his 17 Tests till date.

His ODI career, going by his average of 35.83, hasn’t reached the same heights, but that might be about to change if his form in the recent tri-series in Zimbabwe is anything to go by. In 5 matches, he scored a staggering 464 runs, at an average of 92.80, including a half-century and three centuries, two of which came against Australia. In T20s, Chennai Super Kings can vouch for his ability to be absolutely destructive on his day.

#1 AB de Villiers

South African batsman AB de Villiers is not just the best batsman in the world currently but also the most versatile. He is one of the rare breed of batsmen who have both the ability to bat an entire day and save a Test match, as well as play a blistering knock in a T20 game when needed.

A perfect example his ability is that de Villiers, who is a crowd favourite at the Chinnaswamy Stadium while playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for his outrageous strokeplay, scored a mere 33 from 220 balls at a strike-rate of 15 without a single boundary or six during a Test match against Australia at Adelaide in 2012 and helped save South Africa the match. If not for the desperate situation South Africa had found themselves in, de Villiers would have probably been closing in on yet another double hundred.

The 30-year-old averages above 50 in both Test and ODI cricket currently, one of only two batsmen to do so, and his T20 exploits for various T20 sides across the world are clear to all.