The Ashes series for 2021/22 will soon be upon us and hopefully the action on the pitch will become the focus of attention.
It has been truly remarkable how much has been written and reported about this upcoming series that has absolutely nothing to do with cricket.
For England the inclusion of Ben Stokes is a big fillip. Stokes took a four-month break from cricket to look after his mental health and also to undergo a second operation on his left index finger. By all accounts he is back and raring to go.
The modern media tend to be big on hyperbole and some may argue that this is why many modern day athletes struggle mentally. For our sports stars are elevated to almost super human status and then expected to perform the near on impossible time after time.
Stokes’s performances in the ODI World Cup were straight out a boy’s comic book. Watching it one could hardly believe what you were seeing. These moments are incredibly rare in top flight sport, and it is not often that the players involved are able to repeat the feat. It is also important to remember that while the main hero is performing their herculean feats others alongside them are also lifting their own game.
For example when Sir Ian Botham was smashing the Australian bowling to all parts of the ground at Headingley in 1981 to score a famous 149 not out, he had at the other end the late Graham Dilley who not only stayed at the crease but who also recorded his highest Test match score of 56. Chris Old hang around and scored 29 and the late Bob Willis avoided getting out so that England would bat again the next day. Yes, Botham’s innings took the limelight as well it should. He went from 39 to 103 with 14 fours, a single and a six. These heroics gave England a sniff of a victory. Australia needed 130 to win, and with the batting line up they had few gave England a chance. That was when Bob Willis came roaring in to record his best ever bowling figures in Test cricket of 8 for 43. Maybe it was a masterstroke by recalled captain Mike Brearley not to open the bowling with Willis. Maybe that helped fire him up. The key thing that many forget is that several players contributed to that victory, not just Botham. The same was true with Ben Stokes in the World Cup. Whichever team wins the Ashes it will not be down to one player. There may be dominant performances, most likely from the batsmen, but all will have a part to play.
What is interesting is to hear Stokes described as one of the greatest all rounders in World Cricket; by some of the younger journalists he is ranked as the greatest ever, as they have extremely short memories and little regard for the history of the game.
The game has had many players similar to Stokes who have had the ability to excite the minute they walk out to the middle whether it is to bat or bowl. They have the ability to make things happen. Sometimes it doesn’t come off, but you cannot avert your eyes for fear of missing something truly special.
Stokes is one of those players, and maybe he stands out as the All rounder seems to have become a much rarer commodity in Test Cricket than in years gone by. Could this be thanks to Adam Gilchrist making wicket-keepers now have to be able to bat as well? Alan Knott and Rod Marsh were two who were competent batsmen and the West Indies Clyde Walcott who latterly kept wicket could certainly bat. Yet the performances of Gilchrist put pressure on Wicket-keepers to score runs. One feels that India’s Rishabh Pant has carried on where Gilchrist left off.
Is that why there are so few genuine all rounders in Test Cricket today? Also how does one rate the great all rounders?
Cricket aficionados will often turn to statistics and use them as a measuring stick, but is that fair? Some would argue that Shane Warne became an all rounder towards the end of his career. After all he had one innings of 99 and scored a total of 12 scores of 50 or more, but with a batting average in the teens it is hard to place him in that category. The new Australian Captain Pat Cummins has improved with the bat and has two 50’s to his name, but again an average in the teens would not have him classed as a legitimate all rounder.
In the history of test cricket stretching back to 1877 only 33 times has a player taken five wickets in a Test match and scored a century, a truly all round performance.
The last player to achieve the feat was Ravi Ashwin of India against England in February this year in the 2411th Test match played. It had been almost five years since a player had achieved the feat. Roston Chase of the West Indies having scored 131 not out and taken five wickets for 121 against India in Kingston, Jamaica in 2016.
It is interesting to breakdown the achievement by decades. From 1899 when the feat was first achieved by South African Jimmy Sinclair against England in Cape Town, he was one of only four players to achieve five wickets and a century in a Test match up until 1920. No other player would achieve the milestone until 1952 when India’s Vinoo Mankad did so at Lords.
There were five occasions of a Century and five wickets in the 1950’s, four in the 1960’s, five in the 1970’s, four in the 1980’s, three in the 1990’s, just one in the 2000’s then a leap up to six in the twenty-teens and one since 2020.
England has achieved the feat six times but it should be clarified that Sir Ian Botham contributed five of those and the late Tony Greig the other. The West Indies and India have both achieved this five times, Australia, South Africa and Pakistan all four times, Bangladesh three and Zimbabwe once.
As for the individuals themselves, as mentioned Sir Ian Botham achieved the milestone five times, Mushtaq Mohammed of Pakistan twice, as did Jacques Kallis of South Africa, Sir Gary Sobers and Shakib Al Hassan of Bangladesh. India’s Ravi Ashwin, has managed to complete this double on three occasions and may yet come close to matching Botham.
True cricketing greats such as Richie Benaud, Keith Miller, Imran Khan and Wasim Akram only managed the double once each, India’s Kapil Dev never did. Which makes one question whether such judgements can be made purely on statistics? Often they will have bowled or batted to turn a game, it may have been simply removing a well-established batsman at a crucial time, unfortunately statistics do not show the context of a game.
Yet in the list of all rounders achieving this double three remarkably scored a century and took ten wickets in the match. In 1980 in Mumbai Ian Botham scored 114 runs and took six wickets in the first innings and seven in the second for overall figures of 13 for 106 in the Test. Imran Khan of Pakistan three years later also against India scored 117 and took six wickets and five wickets in each Innings. Shakib Al Hasan is the latest player to achieve this scoring 137 against Zimbabwe and taking five wickets in both innings.
Only one player has scored a Test double hundred and taken five wickets in the same match and that was in 1955 when Denis Atkinson of the West Indies scored 219 and took five wickets against Australia in Barbados.
There can be no doubt that to achieve such a feat is not common in Test Cricket. Yet to achieve it does that place an all rounder amongst the greats?
For Ben Stokes to be ranked amongst the greats of the game will he need to achieve this at least once in his career? He has 10 Test Centuries to his name already and averages 37.04, and he has had four five wicket hauls, but has yet to achieve both in the one Test match. Then again many other talented all rounders failed to achieve it too.
Certainly Ravi Ashwin in recent times has shown that he is indeed worthy of being ranked amongst the best, however at this point in his career his batting average is only in the 20’s. The true greats tend to average in the high 30’s or above with the bat. Shakib Al Hasan has a batting average in the high 30’s but in his case his bowling average is also high in the mid 30’s.
The truly great Sir Garfield Sobers finished his career with a batting average of 57.78 and scored 26 centuries. When it came to bowling he was able to bowl three different styles and his average is again on the high side at 34.03. He took five wickets in an innings six times. Jacques Kallis also averaged over 50 when he retired (55.37) and scored 45 Test hundreds. Like Sobers his bowling average was in the 30’s at 32.65.
Whereas if you take Imran Khan and Wasim Akram, these two Pakistanis had outstanding bowling averages 22.81 and 22.64 respectively, but their batting averages were not quite as impressive. Imran Khan’s was a very respectable 37.69 with six hundreds and Akram’s 22.64 with 3 hundreds. Australian Keith Miller finished with a bowling average of 22.97 and a batting average of 36.97 Of course these three would be classified as bowling all rounders and Sobers and Kallis batting all rounders. Yet all find themselves ranked amongst the top specialist bowlers and batsmen; Sobers is 12th on the all time batting list.
The debate as to who is the greatest all rounder will rage on for many years to come, as will the debate as to how you compare their careers. Having been spoiled with an era that saw the likes of Imran Khan, Ian Botham, Kapil Dev and also Richard Hadlee all playing at the same time one yearns for another player to step forward that has the ability to destroy the opposition with bat or ball.
There is something truly magical about the all rounder and the game is somewhat clinical and sterile without them. Maybe Ben Stokes can set the series on fire with his all round ability, but this is not something that should be expected. Even if his entrance onto the oval makes fans sit up and take notice.
