All-rounder: An Expectation

Who is an all-rounder?  The one who contributes in all the departments of the game? Yes, majority will agree with the fact that the one who can ball, bat and contribute in the field is an all rounder, but did anyone ever think of the pressure that an all-rounder carries in his shoulder?

If I talk about the history of all-rounder in the gentlemen’s game a few names that will come into my mind are Jacques Kallis, Kapil Dev,Imraan Khan, Andrew Flintoff, Steve Waugh, Lance Klusner, Shane Watson etc. They had the ability to change the game at their own will no matter whether with the bat or with the ball. In present days  Sakib, Faulkner, Ben Stokes, Dwayne Bravo etc are those whom a team can bank at any given time.

India too had a list of good all-rounder, Saurav Ganguly, Robin Singh, Manoj Prabhakar will always be remembered for their all round abilities but what is the reason that India could not sustain an all rounder for a longer period of time? Is over experimentation a cause for that?

The expectation that an all-rounder carries is much higher than an opening batsmen or an opening bowler because an all-rounder will come into play when either a fielding side needs a wicket or a chasing team will be looking to build a big partnership or look at finishing a match. 

 

The name Irfan Pathan will always come into every Indian’s mind when we talk about over experimentation and try to forcefully create an all rounder out of nowhere, Pathan in those days was emerging as a good bowler who also loved batting, but didn’t India commit a blunder by experimenting him in the top order position with the bat which also affected his bowling and fitness in the later part of his career? Wasn’t a bright career flawed just because of an unwanted trial to counterpart the overseas expert? Is present team India doing the same with Hardik Pandya?

In my opinion an all-rounder should focus only in one particular area and contribute in the other as and when a team requires. I am taking about batsmen who can ball or a bowler who can bat but experimenting with the batting order and the bowling line up might give a negative result for the team in future and moreover this might be a career breaking decision for the player himself. If you see at some of the examples I mentioned from overseas you can figure out that those players did not experiment much with their batting order and as a result  they contributed for a much longer period for their nation and I feel somewhere down the line India should learn from the overseas examples and also their previous mistakes and try to stick to a particular process.