Greatest Cricket All-Rounders of All Time

Cricket has no shortage of batsmen or bowlers. But a good all-rounder — a player who is good at batting and bowling — is a rare commodity. 

Generally, all-rounders come in two types: batting all-rounder and bowling all-rounder. The primary skill of batting all-rounders is batting, but they can contribute with the ball, too. Bowling all-rounders excel at bowling. A great all-rounder is someone who is equally good at batting and bowling.

These are the greatest all-rounders of all time.

Experience: 1946-59

Country: India

Other major teams: Gujarat, Mumbai

Every cricketer dreams of getting his name in the Lord’s Honours Boards. To achieve it, a player has to take five wickets or score a hundred. Vinoo Mankad did both in 1952 by picking up 5-196 in the first innings and scoring 184 in the second.

Mankad also held the record of highest opening partnership for 52 years with Pankaj Roy (413 runs). Mankad scored 231 in that innings, which was an Indian record for the highest individual score, before Sunil Gavaskar broke the record 28 years later.

Mankad was a slow left-arm bowler and took two 8-wicket-hauls during his career. The Indian all-rounder also is remembered for running out Bill Brown using Mankading. In fact, he did it for the first time in international cricket, and the term is named after him.

Experience: 1952-64

Country: Australia

Other major teams: New South Wales

Richie Benaud is arguably the best cricket commentator of all time. Before his commentary stint, he was a successful captain and all-rounder for Australia.

Benaud accounted for 248 wickets in Tests at an average of 27.03, including 16 fifers. The leg-spinner had great success against India, who were great players of spin. He picked up  52 wickets in eight Tests in India at an excellent average of 18.

As a batsman, he scored 11,719 runs and hit 23 hundreds in first-class cricket. In Tests, he hit 3 centuries and 9 fifties.