All-rounders are particularly valuable in white-ball cricket – here's revisiting the top ten of all time in ODI cricket, based strictly on the ICC ranking system.
As is widely known, the ICC rankings is a points-based system used to evaluate a player's current form, rated from 0 to 1,000. The ratings have been extended to historically evaluate cricketers too: on that parameter, the all-time ICC ODI rankings have seen only four all-rounders cross 500 rating points.
This list is based on the ICC rankings algorithm, which doesn't involve any subjective calculation or manual input.
The numbers are the highest rating point achieved for each all-rounder.
10. Ravi Shastri
469 v Australia (1986)
Forced to retire at 31 due to a knee injury, Shastri's international career lasted all of 11 years. India's utility player during his heyday, he won Player of the Series at the 1985 World Championship of Cricket in Australia, for a haul of 182 runs and eight wickets with his left-arm spin. It was shortly after that, that he achieved his peak rating of 469 points. Shastri batted everywhere from No.1 to No.10 in Test cricket, and it was the same in ODI cricket (apart from No.4).
9. Viv Richards
471 v New Zealand (1985)
Viv Richards’ batting splendour is known far and wide, but his off-spin remained an understated aspect of his game. Back when quick scoring wasn’t a norm, Richards stuck at 90, reaching the zenith of his powers in the mid-Eighties. It included his magnum opus 189*, a world record at that time. With the ball, Richards was effective when used, quietly fitting into a West Indies attack full of riches. He was also the first to hit a ton and take a five-for in the same game.
Read more: No Kapil, No Hadlee: The top ten all-rounders of all time in the ICC Test rankings
8. Shaun Pollock
480 v West Indies (2008)
Only three quicks have taken more ODI wickets than Pollock. None from South Africa. From 1997, until the end of his career in 2008, he never dropped out of the top ten all-rounders list (he retired as the No.1 bowler, at the top for two years). Consistently accurate and lethal with the new ball, Pollock remained a reliable lower-order batter throughout. He is one of five cricketers to do the double of 300 wickets and 3000 runs.
7. Steve Waugh
487 v Sri Lanka (1988)
One of Australia’s greatest leaders, Waugh – a double World Cup winner – had his big moments as an ODI batter, but was also a canny medium pacer who didn’t fulfill his bowling potential due to a back issue. In the early years, Waugh did both, slotting in as the perfect backup seamer to add to his batting pedigree. From his debut in 1986 until the end of the World Cup a decade later, only Craig McDermott took more wickets for Australia. And through the 1990s, only brother Mark scored more runs for Australia.
6. Jacques Kallis
490 v West Indies (2001)
Undoubtedly, one of the most complete all-rounders of all time. Only he and Sanath Jayasuriya have done the double of 10,000 runs and 250 wickets. He’s South Africa’s highest run-scorer of all time, their third-highest wicket-taker, and also has the most fifty-plus scores for them. From May 1999 to October 2003, he was either ranked first or second among all-rounders, reaching his rating peak in 2001.
5. Chris Gayle
496 v Zimbabwe (2003)
Gayle’s bowling abilities don’t exactly match his batting talent, but they still brought out moments of brilliance. These mostly came in the early years of his career: across 2002 and 2003, he took a career-best five-for and three four-fors. From that time until 2009, he remained in and around the top-10, even as he grew by leaps as a batter. Among ODI openers, only Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya have scored more runs.
4. Lance Klusener
509 v Pakistan (1999)
Few, if any, all-rounders have had a World Cup as good as Klusener did in 1999. That whole year, he averaged 95 with the bat and 21 with the ball, establishing himself as one of the foremost ODI finishers, while still being a fine swing bowler. Between 1998 and 2004, he remained among the top five ODI all-rounders, even as his pace reduced in the latter stages.
3. Andrew Flintoff
510 v Sri Lanka (2004)
A generational all-rounder, Flintoff is still among England’s top five-wicket taking quicks, and their only player with a double of 3,000 runs and 150 wickets. The year 2004 was highly prolific: he hit all his three centuries, averaged 58 and struck at 102. That year, he topped the ICC rankings, staying put for one and a half years. The domination could have been longer, if not for a knee injury that cut short his career.
2. Greg Chappell
564 v West Indies (1982)
One of Australia’s greatest Test batters, Chappell’s name on the list, and so high up at that, is bound to leave some confused. Featuring in the early days of ODIs, he raced to the top of the all-rounders’ rankings by his third match itself. But the sustained peak came much later: From November 1980 to April 1983, he topped the charts uninterrupted. The period included his career-best 138* (he averaged 58 in 1980), while his bowling best came in 1981, with 25 wickets at 18. He topped the charts in the 1980/81 World Series Cup, and finished with the second-most wickets.
1. Kapil Dev
622 v West Indies (1983)
The domination is unmatched. From June 1983 until September 1994 (barring a one-game drop), Kapil was the top-ranked ODI all-rounder throughout. The jump to the top came after his record-breaking 183*, arguably Indian cricket’s most impactful knock. No other all-rounder has ever crossed 600 rating points: Kapil’s peak came, unsurprisingly, the year he led India to the World Cup triumph.
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