Is South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis the world’s leading all-rounder? Well, just look at his statistics at Test and one-day international levels.
In the Sydney ODI on Friday, he needs 16 runs and four wickets to become the second cricketer after Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka to do the triple of 10,000 runs, 250 wickets and 100 catches.
In 285 ODIs, Kallis has scored 9,984 runs at 45.38, captured 246 scalps at 31.57 and 104 catches.
Jayasuriya is ahead accumulating 12,861 runs at 32.64, 310 wickets at 36.61 and 119 catches but he has played 424 ODIs, 139 more than Kallis.
At Test level, Kallis requires 12 runs to become the only player to do the Test triple of 10,000 runs, 250 wickets and 100 catches. So far he has amassed 9,988 runs at 54.57, 252 wickets at 31.12 and 139 catches in 128 Tests. This will happen in the series against Australia next month in Johannesburg.
He is the only one to have recorded 9000 runs and claimed 200 wickets in Tests as well as in ODIs. Also he has won most Man of the Match awards (20) in Test history.
In combined Test and ODIs, Kallis has amassed 19,972 runs at 49.56, took 498 wickets at 31.35 and 243 catches.
Thus 28 runs and two wickets in the Sydney ODI on Friday and he will have the unique triple of 20,000 runs, 500 wickets and 200 catches in the two forms of the game.
This makes him statistically the greatest cricket all-rounder in the history of the game.
Kersi Meher-Homji is the author of Cricket’s Great All-Rounders
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