Best allrounder today in world cricket

Abdul Razzaq's explosive batting and subsequent outstanding bowling spell against Australia, got me thinking whether he is the best all-rounder in world cricket today. Razzaq, who had an exceptional start to his career, had cooled off somewhat in the last couple of years - contrast his 99 world cup performance with his 2003 world cup - and you have a story of a career in decline. However, he has had a good season especially in ODI's, bringing back memories of Razzaq of old and with that the question if he is good enough to be called the best all-rounder in World Cricket today.

Ok , lets look at the candidates for the tag. Lets look at batting and bowling all-rounders and not wicket-keeper batsmen - Adam Gilchrist would probably win hand-down if that was the case. Also, I think you need to distinguish between ODI's and test cricket to perform the assessment.

ODI's first. The choice at this point of time is between Razzaq, Afridi, Azhar Mehmood from Pakistan, Kallis, Flintoff, Chris Cairns, Symonds and Upul Chandana. In terms of impact being made currrently and cuurent form, I think the finalists are Razzaq, Flintoff and Symonds. In my opinion, Razzaq probably is ahead by a nose. Mind you, this is not a comparison of careers - but a statement of current form. Razzaq wins more games for Pak than the others. Kallis and Chris Cairns have probably had more exciting careers overall, but they are not winning today as many games as the three finalists.

Tests. The choice here is between Kallis and Flintoff. I think Flintoff is a better bowler and Kallis a much better and more consistent batsman. However, Kallis's bowling is not having as much as an impact as it used to earlier. He is more a batsman than a bowler today. Hence, in terms of impact with both bat and ball, my choice here is Flintoff. Surprisingly, Razzaq does not come close to the two finalists in test cricket. Razzaq's bowling in tests has been pretty ordinary as his test record suggests. Also, he has not crossed 50 in tests for over a year.

England vs SA 3rd Test: Momentum shift?

England's tour of South Africa is indeed turning out to be an intriguing one and far better contest than was expected prior to the series. When England won the first test, there was a chorus that could be heard about how strong the English side was and how it could challenge the Aussies in no time. The chorus did also include me. The first test by all means did signal a side that believed in itself and one that had the mental toughness necessary to be a top team.

However, subsequent to the first test, the tide seems to have slowly turned the South African way. In the second test, the English side did tremendously well to force a draw in a game where they were in a very poor shape after the first innings. At the end, when bad light stopped play, the game was actually tilted England's way. However, the third test saw no English fightback in the second innings after a similar to the second test debacle in the first innings. The fact that they batted last did not have anything to do with change - South Africa is extremely poor in its spin resources to pose any major problems on a wearing wicket. Although the lower half of the batting order did put up a fight and reduce the margin to less than 200, it still was a one-sided loss for the English.

So has the mometum shifted? I guess it is early to say. Although, this must have given a tremendous boost to the South African confidence after their pretty ordinary outing in India. They looked like a fighting unit. The fact that the entire team was ostensibly playing on merit and form, probably allowed for a stronger team spirit and it showed on the field. I believe this has been recognized by the South African selectors and they have recalled Mark Boucher for the fourth test - inexplicably no solid reason has ever been given for his dropping - which by all accounts was arbitrary. Boucher today is probably the second best batsmen amongst wicketkeepers in the world - after Adam Gilchrist. It will be interesting to see if he gets his job straightaway from AB De Villiers who seems to have performed a decent job with the bat and the gloves. It has also helped that Jacques Kallis is back to his best and his recent form is testimony to the fact that he has toppled Dravid as the number one batsman on the ICC rankings.

India's ODI problems

It is fascinating to know that a team with the likes of Tendukar, Sehwag, Ganguly, Dravid, Harbhajan, Kumble and such emerging stars as Yuvraj, Kaif and Pathan is ranked 8th in the current ICC ODI rankings. It is only above Zimbabwe, Kenya and Bangladesh in the ranking right now. This team that beat everyone with the exception of the eventual champions Australia in the World Cup last year has been in a free fall ever since the series against Pakistan in Pakistan. It recently hit a new low when it presented Bangladesh with its first victory against a major test playing nation since achieving test status and its first points in the ICC ODI table.

I think one important reason why the team has been in such a bad state has been the lack of new fresh talent making its mark in the last one year. One day cricket teams need the spark of youth and fresh talent to perform consistently. The reason India has done well in the 2 years preceding the World Cup was the fact that the team introduced good new talent on a regular basis - Sehwag, Yuvraj, Kaif, Pathan, Balaji - all established themselves in that period. In the last one year - the team has not only stuck to the old formula of playing 7 batsmen irrespective of situation, it has gone into all games with the same stale team. The only competition for the top 7 has come from the likes of Rohan Gavaskar - who everyone knows makes it to the national team because of his famous last name. The team selection has been less than objective - Hemang Badani has evey right to know what he has done wrong in all the opportunities he has got. The selectors have not tried any new batsmen or spinners - with the result that the current incumbents have become complacent. The resultant lack of intensity is there for everyone to see.

The team also needs to think through its batting strategy - Does it really need to play 7 batsmen in the sub-continent. Why not allow Dhoni to play and develop into a good wicketkeeper batsmen that he promises to become. Why not consider playing 5 batsmen, a good wicket keeping batsman, an all-rounder (Joginder Sharma, Ritender Sodhi ? ) and 4 genuine bowlers in the sub-continent and increase the number of batsmen if need be abroad. India needs to take a leaf out of Pakistan's book. Despite a weaker batting frontline, Pakistan routinely goes in with 5 batsmen and has been fairly succesful in ODI's doing that. More importantly, they need to rotate the top5 in order to bring in some competition and intensity at the top. The sooner they make it their policy, the better off they will be against a hungry Pakistan coming to India after a "learning" tour down under.

Pakistan's Capitulation

Well, the Pakistan Australia Test series seems to have been an anticlimax at the least. I expected the Pakistan team to come out all guns firing in the Melbourne and Sydney tests - after the expected loss in Perth. However, despite some sort of a struggle in the Melbourne test, it has been a fairly one-sided series and the result 3-0 speaks for itself.

The fact that their Captain and worldclass batsman Inzamam was out of action for most of the series, did not help matters. However, the bigger problem facing Pakistan at this point of time is the fact that this Pakistani side probably has the lowest level of talent seen in a Pakistani side for some time. That the below average (by Pakistani standards) talented side has very little international experience compounds the problem. I do not recall a Pakistani side going into a test match with only one fit wicket taking bowler as it happened at Sydney. The result was that this one bowler - Danish Kaneria - ended up bowling 50 out of a total of 118 overs and taking 7 wickets in the process. No test team can win test matches - let alone against the best side in the world with this strategy.

What perplexes me is the lack of fast bowling fire power at Pakistans disposal currently. Shoaib Akhtar is the only genuine wicket taking bowler that Pak has and he is prone to injuries and attitude meltdowns. Sami's test bowling average of 45 plus tells a story - he has certainly not lived up to the hype and promise he generated when he started out. Khalil and Asif have gone wicketless in their respective first tests. Navedul Hassan and Ifthikar Anjum remain honest triers at best. Danish Kaneria appears to be the only standout bowler on this tour and he is clearly overworked.

The only positive to emerge from this series from the batting point of view is quite obviously -Salman Butt. It remains to be seen if he can mantain his form and not fizzle out a la some of his predecessors in his role - Imran Nazir, Taufeeq Omar, Imran Farhat and even Yasir Hameer - who incidentally has yet to score a test hundred after his two hundreds on debut against Bangladesh.

The one day seried hopefully will be evenly contested - as the Pakistanis have continued to be competitive in the shorter version of the game - a result of having some decent all-round strength at their disposal - Shoaib Malik, Razzaq, Afridi et al.