All-time ODI all-rounders XI?

There are no better heroes in cricket than genuine all-rounders who can swing matches in their team's favour with their batting or bowling. Being an all-rounder is probably the hardest job as it requires one to be adept at more than one skill.

While a top-notch all-rounder can be of immense value in any format, his importance multiplies manifold in limited-overs cricket. A great all-rounder is often worth more than one player in the team. Ever wondered what a team filled only with all-rounders looks like? Here is our 'all-time ODI allrounders XI.'

As one would expect, the top-order and the middle-order are dominated by all-rounders whose primary skill is batting and the rest of the lineup is filled with those whose strong suit is bowling.

Openers

#1 Sanath Jayasuriya

In the first five or six years of his career that began in 1989, Sanath Jayasuriya did not set the stage on fire and seemed to be no more than a 'bits and pieces' cricketer. But, the 1996 World Cup changed everything for him.

Throughout the tournament, Jayasuriya along with his opening partner Romesh Kaluwitharana, launched all-out attacks against the bowlers in the first 15 overs, exploiting the fielding restrictions to the hilt.

His belligerent batting made the world of cricket stand up and take notice of the pocket-sized Lankan dynamo. The daredevil approach of the duo not only played a pivotal role in Sri Lanka's victorious campaign but also revolutionized the role of openers in ODIs.

He was a very shrewd bowler and an agile fielder as well. In the middle overs, Jayasuriya tied the batsmen down with his left-arm finger spin and picked up wickets frequently. He is the only player in the history of ODI cricket to have achieved the double of 13,000 runs and 300 wickets. 'The marauder from Matara' will open the batting for our team.

#2 Chris Gayle

Chris Gayle showed no mercy to the bowlers

A typical modern-day batsman, Gayle biffed and battered his way to greatness. The coaches may always harp on the need to possess a 'sound technique' to achieve success, but with Gayle, technique plays second fiddle. His immense physical strength and simple 'see ball, hit ball' strategy neutralize any weaknesses in his technique. He battered the ball with so much power that even if he managed to get only half of the bat to it, it would still sail comfortably over the ropes for a six!

If someone grew up watching only T20 cricket and thought it was Gayle who was the 'God of Cricket' instead of Sachin Tendulkar, he could easily be forgiven.

There is always so much talk about his hard-hitting batting that his utility as a bowler often slips under the radar. With his fast off-spinners, he did a splendid job as a bowler. In 273 matches, Gayle scored 9394 runs at an average of 37.42 and a Strike Rate of 85.61. His 163 wickets came at 4.76 runs per over, which is a decent economy for a fifth bowler.

Middle-order

#3 Jacques Kallis

Jacques Kallis was probably the greatest all-rounder of at least his era

South Africa's Mr. Dependable. Jacques Kallis has the numbers to challenge Sir Garfield Sobers for the title of the 'greatest Test all-rounder' of all time. As a batsman, his foolproof technique was a cause of great frustration for the bowlers, but an ultimate source of delight for the purists of the game. Throughout this career, he was the backbone of the South African batting lineup.

In the latter half of his career, he played mainly as a specialist batsman and bowled fewer and fewer overs. But by then, he had already taken enough wickets as a bowler to be regarded as one of the best ever all-rounders to have graced the game. He never received as much fame and adulation as his contemporaries Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting et al, but as a player, he is no less than any of them.

In 328 ODIs, Kallis made 11579 runs at a spectacular average of 44.36 and there is also the small matter of 273 wickets. He will take up the no.3 slot in our line-up.

#4 Shane Watson

Watto was an aggressive batsman, tailor-made for limited-overs cricket

If one considers the number of injuries the immensely talented Shane Watson suffered in the early part of his career, he could easily have joined the category of 'What ifs?' Although he was struck by injury after injury, the fighter in Watson refused to be subdued and he battled on valiantly to become a treasured member of the Australian cricket team.

It was in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008, that he first displayed his marvellous all-round skills. Since then, his career reached new heights and he became a permanent fixture in the Australian ODI team as well.

As an opener, Watto enjoyed tremendous success and could rip any bowling attack to pieces. His batting might not have passed muster in the longest format of the game, but in ODIs and T20s, it was extremely dangerous. In 190 ODIs, Watson scored 5757 runs at a Strike Rate of 90 and an average of 40.

He was an excellent medium pacer and could swing the ball as well. He has 168 wickets to his name and proved to be an able replacement for Andrew Symonds, the allrounder who played a crucial role in the success of the team throughout the 2000s.

#5 Steve Waugh(c)

Steve Waugh is one of the greatest captains ever

Steve Waugh is one of the greatest Australian cricketers and is credited with turning a team of talented youngsters into an invincible unit. Under Waugh's captaincy, the Kangaroos steamrollered all oppositions in both formats of the game and went on to become the most dominant side in the entire history of the sport, a claim that can be contested only by the great West Indian team of the 1980s. Who better than Waugh to marshall our army of magnificent all-rounders?

It may come as a bit of surprise but for the first half of his career, Waugh was a fine all-rounder who was equally skilful with both the bat and the ball. Later, he bowled only occasionally but by then, his place in the team was as safe as houses.

He bagged 195 wickets and scored more than 7500 runs in 325 matches. It included three centuries and his highest score of 120 not out came in a memorable game against South Africa in the 1999 World Cup.

#6 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (WK)

MS Dhoni is one of India's most charismatic cricketers ever

Does a wicket-keeper count as an allrounder or is this slot the only non all-rounder's slot in the team? In any case, we cannot have a team without a wicket-keeper. Strictly speaking, a wicket-keeper too must be considered as an allrounder as he is proficient in more than one department. India's ice-cool Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be our gloveman.

There are countless instances of the unflappable Dhoni steering India to victory in extremely tense situations. Along with the lower-order, he often makes valuable runs. Fittingly, he is regarded as the greatest finisher in the entire history of ODI cricket and his numerous last over heroics will be a part of the Indian cricket folklore.

In limited overs cricket, Dhoni boasts of a magnificent record as captain and it is therefore tempting to entrust him with the responsibility of captaincy. But, he will be spared that burden as it tends to curb his aggression in batting. It is pertinent to bear in mind that Dhoni's relentless assaults on the bowlers were more frequent in his pre-captaincy days than when he became the skipper. Although he mostly batted at No.7 for India to shore up its lower-order, he will be placed at 6 here. This gives the 'Jharkhand dynamite' many more overs and allows him to have more impact on the game.

Lower-order

#7 Shakib Al Hasan

Shakib is by far the best player to emerge from Bangladesh

If the credit for the transformation of Bangladesh from perennial underachievers to a formidable unit to be reckoned with must be given to one man, then it would be Shakib-Al-Hasan. For a nation struggling to get rid of the 'minnows' tag and devoid of any great player, the rise of Shakib came as a beacon of hope. And, he continues to be their talisman in both formats of the game.

In 180 matches so far, Shakib has scored more than 5000 runs at an average of 34 and a strike-rate of 81, besides picking up 226 wickets. He played a stellar role in a large number of Bangladeshi victories in the last decade.

With just his batting or bowling alone, Shakib can be an automatic choice in Bangladesh's playing XI on any day. While many of today's leading ODI allrounders failed to replicate their success in Test cricket, Shakib had no such problems whatsoever.

#8 Lance Klusener

Lance Klusener was a devastating batsman and an extremely capable bowler

In his heyday, Lance Klusener was the best all-rounder in the ODI format. It is impossible to write about him without mentioning his breathtaking all-round feats in the 1999 World Cup that nearly won the tournament for South Africa. He scored almost 300 runs at a blistering pace and took 17 wickets, a performance which ranks easily as the greatest ever in a World Cup.

In the semi-final against Australia, a rampaging Klusener bludgeoned two consecutive boundaries in the last over. When the victory seemed certain, Allan Donald was run-out. The result was a heart-breaking tie and ended the rainbow nation's hopes of playing in its first World Cup final. But, there was never any doubt as to who the hero of the tournament was.

In ODIs, Klusener made his runs at a splendid average of 41 and a strike-rate of almost 90. Among the lower-order batsmen of his time, one would be hard-pressed to find out a player who averaged more. As a bowler too, he was a dangerous customer. His canny medium pace, laced with off-cutters, fetched him 192 wickets in 171 matches.

#9 Shahid Afridi

Shahid Afridi walloped the ball in a way nobody else did

There may be many famed power hitters in cricket like Sanath Jayasuriya and Adam Gilchrist but Pakistan's Shahid Afridi was always a cut above the rest. He battered the ball as if his life depended on it. It did not take long for him to proclaim his hard-hitting prowess to the world. In his very first ODI innings, he smashed a record-breaking 37-ball hundred, as a 16-year-old, against Sri Lanka in 1996.

Afridi started mainly as a batsman who could bowl occasional leg-spin but ended his career as one of the greatest ODI allrounders ever. His quick leg spin often caught the batsmen unawares and became so reliable that he became indispensable to the team purely as a bowler, even when his batting skills totally deserted him.

Since Afridi bats in the riskiest manner possible, his stays at the crease are often short. But, even those short ones can be very brutal. At No.8, Afridi may not get more than fifteen or twenty balls to face but that is all he needs to turn the match on its head.

#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.