Birthday special: Jacques Kallis – An all-rounder like no other

One of the greatest all-rounders ever to have graced the field of cricket, Jacques Kallis, is celebrating his 46th birthday today. The former South-African cricketer ruled the world of cricket with his stoic batting and medium-pace bowling. He is the only cricketer in the history of the game to amass more than 10,000 runs and scalp more than 250 wickets in both the ODI and Test format of the game. Based on these records, he is arguably the world’s greatest all-rounder.

Kallis became the fourth player in the world and the first South African to complete 13,000 Test runs on the opening day of the first Test in the year 2013 against New Zealand. The amazing all-rounder played 166 Test matches and maintained a batting average of more than 55 runs per innings.

It was in 2011 when he struck his 40th Test century to become the second-highest scorer of Test centuries as he took over Ponting and remained only behind Sachin Tendulkar (51 Test centuries). The South-African legend was named the Leading Cricketer in the World in 2008 by Wisden for his brilliant performances. He was also named as ‘ICC Test Player of the Year’ and ‘ICC Player of the Year in 2005’.

As per Kevin Pietersen and Daryll Cullinan, Kallis was the greatest cricketer to play the game of cricket. Also, along with Wally Hammond and Sir Garry Sobers, he is one of the few Test all-rounders who have a batting average over 50 in the same format and exceeds his bowling average of Test by 20 or more. He bid adieu to his Test career in 2013 against India in Durban and smashed a century in his final match too. After this feat, he became one of the very few batsmen to score a century in their final Test.

Kallis’ career at a glance

He retired from all the formats of cricket in 2014 after playing his final ODI against Sri Lanka. In his glorious career, Kallis scored 13, 289 runs and picked 292 wickets in Tests. In 328 ODIs, he struck 11,579 runs and scalped 273 wickets. Apart from this, he has 200 catches in Test and 131 in ODI format.  Talking about his career in the Indian Premier League, he plied his trade for two teams while he was associated with the league.

From the inaugural season in 2008 to 2010, he remained with Royal Challengers Bangalore, which was led by Rahul Dravid back then. He then played for Kolkata Knight Riders from 2011 to 2014 where his side win two IPL trophies. Kallis was appointed as head coach of KKR in 2015 and was also the batting consultant of the franchise in the same year. Currently, he is the batting consultant of the England national cricket team.