Former Indian fast bowler Zaheer Khan has ignored his long-time teammate Yuvraj Singh, who won the Player Of The Tournament award in the 2011 ODI World Cup, and legendary Jacques Kallis to pick a former India captain as the best ODI all-rounder of all time. For Zaheer, who played 194 one-day matches for Team India from 2000 to 2012 and dismissed 269 batters, Kapil Dev is the best ODI all-rounder of all time.
Zaheer made the bold selection during the Cricbuzz show.
Kapil, who led India to their first ever ODI World Cup title win in 1983, played a total of 225 ODIs from 1978 to 1994 and scored 3783 runs in addition to taking 253 wickets.
The Haryana-based cricketer was the first Indian to score a century in limited overs cricket. During the India-Zimbabwe
1983 World Cup match played at Tunbridge Wells, Kapil, after coming out to bat at No. 6, remained unbeaten on 175 runs from 138 balls. At that time it was the highest score in ODI cricket by any batter.
He also became the first bowler to take 200 wickets in one-day matches and also held the record of being the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket at the time of his retirement.
“I am going to go with Kapil paaji. I think Kapil Dev beats Yuvraj Singh for me,” Zaheer said.
Yuvraj played 304 ODI matches during his 17-year-long career from October 3, 2000, to June 30, 2017, and in addition to scoring 8701 runs, he also accounted for the dismissal of 111 batters.
In the 2011 ODI World Cup, Yuvraj played nine matches for the MS Dhoni-led side and scored 362 runs in eight innings. With the ball, he picked up 15 wickets, which also included one five-wicket haul.
Kallis, on the other hand, finished his career with 11,579 runs and 273 wickets in 328 ODI matches. The former South African cricketer has also scored more than 10,000 runs and picked up more than 250 wickets in Test cricket.
For many greats of the game, which includes former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting, Kallis is the greatest cricketer of all time.
