Tom Moody names two Pakistan players among cricket's great all-rounders

Australia’s former cricketer Tom Moody, during the Pitch Side Podcast, named Pakistan’s legendary captain Imran Khan and former all-rounder Shahid Afridi among the greatest all-rounders in the Test and Twenty20 (T20) format, respectively.

The 54-year-old named West Indies’ legendary cricketer Sir Gary Sobers as the greatest all-rounder in Test cricket followed by South Africa’s Jacques Kallis and Pakistan’s Imran Khan.

“To me, the argument is that who is going to be first or second on that list. The top two as far as I am concerned are Sobers and Kallis. Both were unbelievable performers. I can’t determine who should be number one out of those two. I didn’t see a lot of Sobers but I did see a lot of Kallis and what he brought with the bat averaging in the mid-fifties. The bowler that he was and the second slip that caught everything that went anywhere near him. He was an unbelievable package,” said Moody.

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“The third person on that list, I find it very hard to go past Imran Khan. What he did was quite phenomenal. I played against him towards the end of his career. I remember facing Imran and he was just above average pace but he was towards the end of his career. I remember speaking to people that played him in the early and middle parts of his career and they said he was genuinely quick. To have that and the ability to bat at five, six and seven in ODIs and Test cricket and have an average in the ’30s is great,” he added.

The former Aussie cricketer chose West Indies’ Andre Russell, Australia’s Shane Watson and Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi as the best all-rounders for T20 cricket.

“I am going Russell, Watson and Afridi in that order. Afridi over the last 12 or 14 years as an all-rounder has been nothing short of brilliant. He was a match-winner with both bat and ball and he has done it consistently. We have to remember the Afridi of the past, not the Afridi today when he was in his sweet spot, which was for a long period when he was playing the highest quality cricket of his career,” he said.

Moody believed that Australia’s Shane Watson was not as highly rated as he deserved while adding him to his list of the greatest One-day International (ODI) all-rounders along with South Africa’s Jacques Kallis and fellow countryman Lance Klusener.

“I don’t think Watson is rated as highly as he should be. He batted at the top of the order. His strike rate was just over 90 in ODIs. It isn’t that much today but in his generation it was great. Kallis had a strike rate in the early ’70s. The impact Watson had was enormous. Watson without question is in my top three. I would say in no particular order, Kallis, Klusener and Watson,” he concluded.