All-rounders with equal bowling/batting skill?

[CricAddict]

I think Shakib wins this. Has all the qualifications.

1. Merits place in the team on both batting and bowling alone. Crucial to the team in both.
2. Cannot determine which one is the better suit. Top six batsman and the main bowler.
3. Batting average exceeds the bowling average by a distance

 

[bagapath]

Ian Botham
Keith Miller
Jack Gregory
Vinoo Mankad
Shakib Al Hasan

 

[JBMAC]

Keith Miller
Allan Davidson

 

[harsh.ag]

Keith Miller
Allan Davidson

Davidson more of a bowling all rounder I would say.

Ian Botham
Keith Miller
Jack Gregory
Vinoo Mankad
Shakib Al Hasan

This for me too, with Goddard as an addition.

If you go around digging into it, I guess you could find space for more players who for some part of their career justified this tag, like Vettori as mentioned earlier, and Flintoff and Cairns.

 

[JTemperance]

Jesse Ryder averages 45 with the bat and 28 with the ball in first class cricket. A shame he and New Zealand seem to have given up on each other.

 

[duffer]

Ravi Jadeja. Not good enough with the ball or the bat.

 

[Camo999]

Azhar Mahmood
Brian McMillan
Ben Hollioake
Dwayne Bravo
Darren Sammy
Maybe Jason Holder

 

[Camo999]

Greg Matthews
Shahid Afridi

 

[Red]

Greg Matthews a good call.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

I've got a bit of time for the 'Big Ship' Warwick Armstrong, or Monty Noble. Both statistically and from all accounts. Noble particularly was great at many aspects of the game including bowling spin and pace, just as Sobers was.
Sobers too, of course is also underrated as a strike bowler.
Keith Miller. I don't think his numbers reflect how great he must have been. I never saw him play but it sounds like it would have been great...batting and bowling in equal measure. it seems Miller didn't care much about throwing his wicket in batting or bowling at weaker opponents.
I haven't read much about Tony Greig either (his commentary infuriated me) but his stats look decent, was he a fairly balanced product?

 

[wpdavid]

I haven't read much about Tony Greig either (his commentary infuriated me) but his stats look decent, was he a fairly balanced product?

His batting was better than his bowling. Some of his innings - Brisbane in 1974, Leeds in 1976 and Calcutta in 1976 to name but three - were as good as you could wish to see. His bowling had its moments, but I don't think he would have posed much of a threat on today's wickets.

 

[fredfertang]

Greigy is much underrated imo - was a marvellous batsman with no shortage of courage in an era when there were a few England batsmen who were found wanting in that department (not that I criticise them for that - you wouldn't have got me facing Jeff Thomson without a helmet) - effective bowler too but he did have an ugly action, which colours the way folk remember him - and of course he had that great game in the West Indies a few weeks after starting to bowl his offies, if you could call them that - always amazed me how well he succeeded in making his action even more 'orrible

 

[marc71178]

I understand Imran batted at 7 more than he batted at 6. But to exclude his vastly superior numbers both with bat and ball, for Botham, is to me, ridiculous.

If you wish to respond with "young Botham", I would reply with 1982-92 "Old Imran" over a longer period of time - where as captain he averaged 52 with the bat and 20 with the ball.

Difference being that Botham actually performed with bat and ball at the same time. In spite of that 52/20 split, Imran never did.

 

[NZTailender]

JR Reid

 

[OverratedSanity]

Difference being that Botham actually performed with bat and ball at the same time. In spite of that 52/20 split, Imran never did.

Saying this again and again won't make it true. Of course Imran had multiple series where he did perform with bat and ball at the same time. You just choose to ignore them.

 

[NZTailender]

lol Marc

All-round records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[harsh.ag]

Saying this again and again won't make it true. Of course Imran had multiple series where he did perform with bat and ball at the same time. You just choose to ignore them.

Easily his best series is the India-Pakistan 1982/83 series. 6 tests, 40 wickets @ 13.95 (awesome of course), 247 runs @ 61.75. He batted just 5 times in those 6 tests(!), scoring a century (117) and mostly 30s and 40s.

Second best series, again, India-Pakistan 1989/90 series. 4 tests, 13 wickets @ 38.76, 262 runs @ 87.33. A hundred, scores of 66 as well. Just 5 innings batted, one of them a 20 odd not out.

Third best, England-Pak 1987 series. 5 tests, 21 wickets @ 21.66, 191 runs @ 47.75. A hundred. 5 innings only.

That's pretty much it.

 

[Red]

Tom Moody fits this thread too, the sum was greater than the parts.

Also Ken Mackay and Trevor Bailey. Same story.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Easily his best series is the India-Pakistan 1982/83 series. 6 tests, 40 wickets @ 13.95 (awesome of course), 247 runs @ 61.75. He batted just 5 times in those 6 tests(!), scoring a century (117) and mostly 30s and 40s.

Second best series, again, India-Pakistan 1989/90 series. 4 tests, 13 wickets @ 38.76, 262 runs @ 87.33. A hundred, scores of 66 as well. Just 5 innings batted, one of them a 20 odd not out.

Third best, England-Pak 1987 series. 5 tests, 21 wickets @ 21.66, 191 runs @ 47.75. A hundred. 5 innings only.

That's pretty much it.

Had a couple against NZ and West Indies as well.

Sure, he's no Sobers or Botham in terms of delivering with both disciplines together, but there's a difference between "never" and did it 4-5 times (which is still more than most manage)

 

[CaptainGrumpy]

Had a couple against NZ and West Indies as well.

Sure, he's no Sobers or Botham in terms of delivering with both disciplines together, but there's a difference between "never" and did it 4-5 times (which is still more than most manage)

Well just how many series did Botham do it? Can tailender provide a similar statsguru comparison for Botham? Because I imagine that the bowling starts getting ordinary after say 1982... (I havn't checked this). He had a good test in Sydney 86/87 with the ball... And got runs at the GABBA in that series... But Botham's batting and bowling stats are very ordinary for a reason as against Imran's...

Sobers was a great batsman who could bowl more than usefully.