Classifying the all-rounders

[CricAddict]

A lot of us have differing opinions on whether a player is a balanced all-rounder, batting all-rounder or bowling all-rounder. Just thought of doing an exercise to classify them based on CW votes.

Below is the list of top 25 all-rounders in test history based on CW voting that happened earlier this year. Please vote for your top player in each of below categories. I will compile the votes and go on till interest dwindles.

Balanced all-rounder:
Batting all-rounder:
Bowling all-rounder:

The List
1. Garry Sobers
2. Imran Khan
3. Jacques Kallis
4. Keith Miller
5. Ian Botham
6. Shakib Al Hasan
7. Kapil Dev
8. Aubrey Faulkner
9. Richard Hadlee
10. Shaun Pollock
11. Ravindra Jadeja
12. Ben Stokes
13. Monty Noble
14. Tony Greig
15. Trevor Goddard
16. Chris Cairns
17. Vinoo Mankad
18. Mushtaq Mohammad
19. Andrew Flintoff
20. Jack Gregory
21. Eddie Barlow
22. Warwick Armstrong
23. Ravichandran Ashwin
24. Walter Hammond
25. Jason Holder

 

[CricAddict]

Starting off with my vote.

Genuine all-rounder: Gary Sobers
Batting all-rounder: Jacques Kallis
Bowling all-rounder: Richard Hadlee

 

[subshakerz]

Genuine: Miller
Batting all-rounder: Sobers
Bowling all-rounder: Imran

Sobers and Imran are good enough in their second disciplines to be borderline genuine IMO. But I think they tilt so heavily in favor of their stronger disciplines that they fall into these respective categories.

 

[ataraxia]

I hate the term genuine AR.

 

[CricAddict]

I hate the term genuine AR.

Prefer to go with "Balanced" instead of "Genuine"?

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Genuine: Miller
Batting all-rounder: Sobers
Bowling all-rounder: Imran

 

[subshakerz]

Prefer to go with "Balanced" instead of "Genuine"?

I think genuine allrounder is kinda of misleading because even someone imbalanced like Sobers and Imran are genuine.

 

[CricAddict]

I think genuine allrounder is kinda of misleading because even someone imbalanced like Sobers and Imran are genuine.

Sure. I have changed the category to balanced all-rounder now. Balanced as in equally balanced in their proficiency in both batting and bowling. Hope this is fine.

 

[mr_mister]

Has there ever been a batsman who batted top 4 and opened the bowling for a decent length of time? Ie one of the best batsmen and bowlers in the team

I guess Miller came close as a number 5 bat. Dunno how often Goddard opened the bowling

And despite being a spinner, Aubrey Faulkner was probably the best in his team at both batting and bowling for a series or too I guess

Neil Johnson in the '99 WC was carrying Zimbabwe in both disciplines

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Manoj Prabhaker opened the batting and bowling at times for India.

 

[Bitmap]

Balanced: Miller
Batting allrounder: Sobers
Bowling allrounder: Imran

 

[Bitmap]

Has there ever been a batsman who batted top 4 and opened the bowling for a decent length of time? Ie one of the best batsmen and bowlers in the team

I guess Miller came close as a number 5 bat. Dunno how often Goddard opened the bowling

And despite being a spinner, Aubrey Faulkner was probably the best in his team at both batting and bowling for a series or too I guess

Neil Johnson in the '99 WC was carrying Zimbabwe in both disciplines

Shane Watson was the leading run scorer and wicket taker for Australia in 2012 T20 WC. He opened the batting, not sure about opening the bowling though.

 

[Prince EWS]

Shane Watson was the leading run scorer and wicket taker for Australia in 2012 T20 WC. He opened the batting, not sure about opening the bowling though.

Pretty sure he just meant Tests.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I opened the batting and bowling in my school team when I was 9

 

[honestbharani]

I opened the batting and bowling in my school team when I was 9

And you were bullying the 4 year olds?

 

[TheJediBrah]

And you were bullying the 4 year olds?

I don't think that happens here, you play against your own age

 

[Fuller Pilch]

I opened the batting and bowling in my school team when I was 9

Was that with a rubber ball or compo?

 

[TheJediBrah]

Wow haven't heard the words "compo" in so many years, yeah it was that. On concrete pitches too

The balls had like a painted white "seam" on them that would rub off during the innings IIRC

 

[mr_mister]

We called them incredaballs. Think that was the brand

Concrete pitches were fun to bat on

 

[Lillian Thomson]

The standard of cricket at my over 11’s school was rather low in the early days. The top 5 batsmen would be the five bowlers. Numbers 6 and 7 would be wicket keeper and long stop. 8 to 11 didn’t bat or bowl (occasionally had to bat of course), but agreed to make up the numbers on a week day to get out of lessons early.