4 players who did well in Tests despite being touted as limited-overs specialists

Cricket is a very unique sport which requires an individual to adjust to different situations and at the same time possess different skill sets to succeed in each of three formats of the game.

Undoubtedly, the need to have the right mix of strokeplay, patience, and ability to counter seam, swing and raw pace and temperament are some of the traits that one can find common in all the great batsman round the world, be it Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Joe Root, AB de Villiers and Kane Williamson or any other greats of the past.

All of these star players have the ability to transform from looking like a million dollars in a T20 game to a gritty batsman looking to grind it out and score ugly runs. These are what we call all-format greats, batsmen who have the ability to transform their game according to conditions and the situation.

There has been a lot of apprehension about India's decision to try Rohit Sharma as an opener in Test cricket and understandably so. Rohit has never opened in FC cricket and his returns in Tests have been underwhelming, to say the least. Add to it the recent examples of the failure of ODI openers like Aaron Finch and Jason Roy to make a successful transition to Tests, and the apprehension grows even more.

However, as we have seen in the past, sometimes the best solutions are not the obvious ones, and this article is an aim to highlight four players who did well in Tests despite being touted as limited-overs specialists.

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#4 AB de Villiers

AB de Villiers

There are batsmen blessed with raw skills, some are blessed natural flair while some are blessed with technique and temperament which helps them to withstand everything that comes their way at the top level.

However, few have all those aforementioned attributes tuned to the zenith and AB de Villiers is one of them. From slaying the bowling units to all corners of the ground in white-ball cricket to playing a perfect blockathon in Test cricket, de Villiers has been one of those few players who have excelled in all formats of the game, despite early apprehensions about his future in Test cricket.

From scoring his first double hundred in India back in 2008 to helping his side to a well earned draw at Adelaide, where he and du Plessis played a perfect blockathon to deny the Australia a win, the dashing right-hander has made a massive impact in the longest format of the game.

AB de Villiers signed off last year after having played pivotal roles in South Africa's Test series win against India and Australia as he finished his career as a genuine all-time great irrespective of the format of the game.

Test Career: Matches - 114, Runs - 8765, Average - 50.66, Centuries -22

Also see – World Test Championship Schedule

#3 Sanath Jayasuriya

Sanath Jayasuriya

Sanath Jayasuriya's rise to the top coincided with Sri Lanka's ascent as a cricketing powerhouse. The Matara Mauler, as he was famously called for his ability to tear bowling attacks to all corners of the ground, was at the vanguard of Sri Lanka rise as a top-level cricket team.

Initially picked in the side as a typical utility player in white-ball cricket, one who could bash the ball around in the closing stages of the ODI innings and someone who could roll his arm over with the ball.

As a result, Jayasuriya's career was a stop-start in his first six years from 1989-1995. It was in 1996 that Jayasuriya 2.0 was born. A player who would terrorize the bowing attacks irrespective of the format of the game was born when skipper Arjuna Ranatunga pushed him at the top of the order. What followed was mayhem with his partner Romesh Kaluwitharana, revamping the way one should approach the first 15 overs in an ODI.

Yet, Jayasuriya wasn't only a great white-ball player. The southpaw put up some quality knocks, such as the 340 against India at Colombo when Sri Lanka racked up more than 900 runs in a Test match back in 1997, his swashbuckling 213 in the very next year against England at the Oval that helped Sri Lanka win their first Test on English soil and the 253 against the likes of Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram.

Test Career: Matche - 110, Runs - 6973, Average - 40.07, Centuries -14

#2 Adam Gilchrist

Adam Gilchrist

There are stars, there are superstars and then there are players who go on to redefine a particular role. These players are known as the trendsetters - a person who comes and redefines the manner in which a particular role is seen or perceived. The cricketer, in this case, is Adam Gilchrist and the role he went on to redefine was that of a wicket-keeper batsman.

Before Gilchrist, wicketkeepers were selected purely on the basis of their skills behind the wicket and their ability to churn out some quality knocks was only a bonus. However, Adam Gilchrist, courtesy his precocious talent with the bat went on to terrorize the bowlers all around the world.

When on a song, he would pulverize the bowling unit no matter which format of the game he was playing. Ask Pakistan, who were the first ones to face the wrath of Gilly's bat in his debut game at Hobart in 1999. Or ask the South Africans, against whom he struck what was then the fastest Test double hundred, back in 2002.

Adam Gilchrist went on to play 96 Test matches for Australia between 1999-2008, during which he scored 5570 runs at an average of 47.61 and a strike-rate of 81.86, leaving a legacy and a template for other countries to follow as far as selecting wicket-keeper in their Test side, often leading to the likes of Rishabh Pant and Quinton de Kock being termed as his successors.

Test Career: Matches - 96, Runs - 5570, Average - 47.61, Centuries - 17

#1 Virender Sehwag

Virender Sehwag

This is a story of not only a middle-order batsman succeeding in a role so obscure to him that he even had apprehensions before coming on-board but also of a leader who was not willing to let the talent of his youngster go waste just because he can't break into a middle-order which was packed with superstars. He was always ready to give his best, and back the youngsters when they needed a push in confidence.

The truth was Virender Sehwag wasn't able to break into India's middle-order despite scoring a hundred in his Test debut at Bloemfontein and had warmed the bench during the national side's Test series in the Caribbean in 2002. This is where Sourav Ganguly decided to draft Sehwag in the team as an opener for the series in England, a move that raised a lot of eyebrows at the time.

But Sehwag vindicated his skippers' decision by scoring a hundred at Trent Bridge and what followed after that was mayhem, a period of total destruction at the top that spanned for over a decade. From smashing the Pakistan bowlers - against whom he averaged above 90 - to decoding the mystery of Ajanta Mendis in 2008, Sehwag went on to become an opener whose successful transition from an ODI middle-order batsman to a Test opener is something every team is trying to emulate currently.

Test career: Matches - 104, Runs - 8586, Average - 49.34, Centuries - 23