Modern Cricket is all about all-rounders
Cricket used to be a game of specialist players in the past, but times have changed now as modern day cricket has brought new challenges for everyone.
Nowadays, every player needs to be flexible and adapt according to the changes in the game. Due to this, the importance of all-rounders has become significant and it will not be wrong to say that the value of specialists has decreased over the last couple of decades.
During the earlier days, the batsmen only used to focus on their techniques and did not want to divert their focus on any other thing and the same applied to the bowlers.
However, teams in today’s cricket prefer players who have the ability to do a bit of everything. The prime example is of England, who are currently ranked number one in the ICC Test and Twenty20 rankings.
The Poms recently crushed India 4-0 in a home Test series and claimed the top spot in the longest version of the game. Their strength lies in the all-round cricketers, who have the ability to change the complexion of the game with both bat and ball.
The list of all-rounders in the English squad starts from their wicketkeeper batsman Matt Prior. He is a utility cricketer and has the ability of scoring runs in quick time.
Unlike Prior, the wicketkeepers of the past were not considered as all-rounders, as their main job was to do their job behind the stumps.
However, keepers like Australia’s Adam Gilchrist and Pakistan’s Moin Khan changed the trend of just focussing on their glove work and gave a new dimension to the youngsters.
Due to this, there is no place for a genuine keeper in any international side if he is not a good batsman.
All top teams have keeper batsmen, who have the ability to win the match with the bat. Examples of some modern day keepers are Kumar Sangakkara, Brad Haddin, AB de Villiers, Prior, Kamran Akmal, Brendon McCullum and Tatenda Taibu.
Coming back to the list of English all-rounders, the team has a few batsmen who have the ability to bowl 10 overs in a One Day game. Ravi Bopara and Samit Patel are two recent examples and there are a few others as well who can do the job.
Apart from that, the number one Test team in the world is filled with bowling all-rounders such as Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann.
Other than the Poms, there are some other quality sides in the world which have been focussing on inducting all-rounders in their side.
One of the teams doing well in recent times is Pakistan and the main reason behind that is the flexible cricketer they have.
Mohammad Hafeez, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Malik and Sohail Tanvir are all utility cricketers and possess the ability of winning matches on their own both with the bat and ball.
Currently, the best all-rounder in modern day cricket is South Africa’s Jacques Kallis. The veteran is a class act when it comes to batting and is nearing 300 wickets in both ODI and Test cricket.
Other than Kallis, Shane Watson, Shakib-Al-Hasan, Dwayne Bravo, Albie Morkel, Steve Smith, Angelo Mathews and Jacob Oram are prime examples of how cricket has developed into an all-rounder’s game.
However, specialist cricketers are still as important as they were in the past. Their significance will never be lesser compared to the old days, but flexibility is the key to playing modern day cricket.
Overall, a team needs to have a perfect blend of cricketers who can do their respective jobs with full command. Despite the importance of all-rounders, a team cannot go with 11 of them, as there needs to be a balance everywhere.
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