All-rounders are a rare breed in cricket, and they become even rarer when asked to bear the travails of all three formats of the game and also participate in the T20 leagues all around the world, which has become a necessity these days. The constant need to travel around the world and adjust to different conditions, and then ply their trade with the bat as well as with the ball takes a lot out of such cricketers. The cricketing calendar is such that 8 of the top 9 Test playing nations play continuous cricket for most parts of the year and the rest periods in between are reduced to a span of a few weeks.
Hence, it must be noted that the cricketers who have been enlisted below have made it to the international level, despite the presence of (or due to the presence of) innumerable hindrances and pathbreakers, and have persevered from thereon. We enlist 5 upcoming all-rounders who have the potential to become future superstars for their respective teams.
Note: As the criteria to categorise a player as an upcoming cricketer, the filter of him having played 25 ODIs and 20 T20Is at the most has been applied. It means, that only those cricketers have been considered who have played fewer than and equal to 25 ODIs and 20 T20Is.
Mitchell Santner – New Zealand
The 3 Tests, 4 ODIs, and 10 T20Is that the 24-year-old Mitchell Santner has played only give a bleak glimpse about the talent that the left-arm spinner has. The relatively mellowed cricketer only garnered attention four months after his international debut, when during the ICC World T20 2016 opener between India and New Zealand, the Kiwi spinners wreaked havoc on a rank turner in Nagpur to bamboozle the Indian batsmen and pull out a shock defeat. Santer’s left-arm orthodox spin fetched him 4/11 from his 4 overs, and the way he deceived the Indian batsmen in the air made the world stand up and take notice of this young cricketer. In 10 T20Is that he has played, he has picked up at least a wicket in all of them except one. Overall, the New Zealand rookie has 15 wickets from 14 ODIs, 17 wickets from 10 T20Is and 6 wickets from 3 Tests.
However, it is the southpaw’s abilities with the bat that make him an even better cricketer and a vital asset for New Zealand cricket. A treble of 40s and a couple of 30s that feature in his 11 ODI innings, made all the more remarkable considering the fact that he came in to bat at No. 7 and No. 8 in the batting order, show that the left-handed batsman deserves to bat higher in the lineup and has a lot of potential with the bat as well. An ODI batting average of 49.00 and a strike rate of 105.00 don’t cause much harm to his reputation either. Having played only 3 Tests, Santner career is expected to only flourish when New Zealand tour India in September-October this year, as the spin-friendly subcontinental pitches would assist the all-rounder to a greater extent as compared to the surfaces at home.
Marcus Stoinis – Australia
Marcus Stoinis has played only 1 ODI and 1 T20I for Australia, but the prospects of the right-handed batsman – who doubles up as a right-arm medium pace bowler – becoming one of the permanent fixtures in the Australian lineup were boosted after his performances in the Indian Premier League this season, as well as, during the Big Bash League in Australia last year. 9 wickets and 169 runs from 10 BBL games and 8 wickets and 146 runs from 7 IPL games have, to some extent, established his prowess as a potential all-rounder.
Moreover, a first-class batting average of 39.05, a T20 bowling average of 18.26 mixed with his ability to pick wickets almost every match that he plays and score quick runs towards the death makes him a vital asset for any limited-overs team. Although the 26-year-old is yet to make a mark for himself at the international level, going by his performances in the domestic tournaments, one would feel that all he needs is a long rope with the Australian cricket team in order to cement his place in the side.
Axar Patel – India
Following a trend of bowling fast, straight and wicket to wicket, first imbibed into the modern Indian cricketing galleries by Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel has, in the span of two years, carved out a niche for himself and has delivered with consistent performances. Not a massive turner of the ball, Patel’s strengths lie in his accuracy, using which – much to his captain MS Dhoni’s pleasure – he bogs the batsmen down at the crease and deters them from using their feet by bowling quicker and flatter through the air. 31 wickets from 25 ODIs and 7 wickets from 7 T20Is have put him in the contention lines for India’s limited-overs expeditions, and in time, especially for games played within the realms of the subcontinent, he could prove out to be an extremely vital customer.
A new facet that we have been witnesses to, with regards to the 22-year-old cricketer, has been his substantial improvement with the bat, of late, a few examples of which have been his innings of 20* (11) and 18 (9) in the T20Is against Zimbabwe, coming in to bat at No. 7 and No. 8. Patel’s abilities to clear the ropes with his straight-batted heaves made him a popular six-hitter in the IPL this season, and he has carried that form into the international games as well. While his ODI batting average of 10 is anything but praiseworthy, the List A average of 25.78 from 69 games having scored 954 runs, in addition to his bowling average of 27.61 shows that there is a lot of potential in store to be exploited.
Carlos Brathwaite – West Indies
It will take some time for the World T20 glory – of which Carlos Brathwaite was a significant part – to settle down, as the West Indies hadn’t had a crown to show against all of their despair over the past for years. Notwithstanding that, Brathwaite’s value as a potential game-changer has already been realised by one and all, and he has now become a permanent member of the West Indies side across all formats. 12 wickets from 14 ODIs and 5 wickets from 8 T20Is do no harm to his reputation either.
An all-rounder who has made a name for himself majorly due to his dependability during tough match situations and his knack for picking up wickets through disciplined bowling – as was on show during the recent Tri-Nation Series in the Caribbean – has 37 wickets from 33 List A games and 46 wickets from 52 T20 games. Brathwaite’s height allows him to extract the extra bit of bounce off the surface, and his angled in deliveries cramp the batsman for room and force a false shot. In addition to that, his variations of the slower ball also come in handy, especially during the death overs. A T20 strike-rate of 154 with 36 sixes and 21 fours from 52 games give a clear picture of the devastation that he can bring with the long handle, a striking example of which was his annihilation of Ben Stokes in the World T20 2016 final.
Dasun Shanaka – Sri Lanka
On the first morning of a Test series that was expected to (and was, in the end) be dominated by the home side, Dasun Shanaka, a dibbly-dobbly bowler – a class dispelled upon by the elite English, and to prevent the menace of which it was decided to do away with the toss in the England’s 50-over domestic championship – was running riot, as he had dismissed three of the top 4 Englishmen (Alastair Cook, Nick Compton, and Joe Root) and had helped his team reduce the home side to 83/6 before Lunch. That it was the only phase throughout the three-test series that Sri Lanka looked to have had the upper hand, speaks in abundance about the travails that the country’s cricket faces at the moment.
Having said that, the sheen mustn’t be taken away from the young men who, in five years from now, can be some of the potential match-winners that the country faces a scarcity of at the moment. Shanaka’s numbers of 710 runs from 35 T20 games at 28.40 and a strike-rate of 153.34 prove that he is no mug with the bat and has the potential to score quick runs lower down the order. In addition to that, the 24-year-old’s first-class batting average of 38.16 (1374 runs from 32 games) and bowling average of 26.20 (29 wickets from 32 games) prove that he isn’t a customer suited only to the shortest format of the game. The ability to move the ball in the air and off the pitch and mix it up with slower deliveries can make him a lynchpin for the side across formats if he is given a long run at the international level.
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