World’s Best All-rounder: Shane Watson

Watto player! You’ll be chanting this too once you read what Arvind Iyengar has to say about an incredible all-round talent called Shane Watson.

Australia pulled off an important win against Sri Lanka at Galle in the first Test of the Warne-Muralitharan series. A lot of guys played a part in the win - Hussey with his man-of-match worthy 95 in the first innings, Lyon picked up 5-34 on debut, Clarke got an attacking 60 in the second innings and Harris had a fifer in the final innings to seal the victory. Another man with a major contribution was Shane Watson. Five crucial wickets in the game which included breaking Sri Lanka’s 4th wicket partnership in the first innings by dismissing the first innings highest scorers Samaraweera and Paranavitana which led to Sri Lanka losing their last 7 wickets for 18 runs. In the second innings, he got the big wickets of Sangakkara and Matthews, the final nail in the coffin, to give Australia a decisive victory. And on a low scoring pitch, he got a handy 22 runs on testing day one conditions. His performances should come as no surprise though; Watto’s been Australia’s most consistent performer for the last couple of year now. In fact, he’s been one of the best in the world and is by far the best all-rounder in the game today.

Here’s a look at the players who’ve got over 500 runs and over 20 wickets in the past two years. It’s a short list; a notable omission is Kallis whose bowling has taken a dip due to a combination of injuries and poor form. The number to look out for in this table is the batting average/bowling average ratio or the All-rounder Ratio - the higher the number, the better the all-rounder.

You can see it’s not really a contest, especially when Watson has the best batting and bowling average on this list. Unless Kallis gets back to being a handy bowler or Bresnan keeps up his current form with the bat and ball, you have to believe Watson is going to be the game’s elite all-rounder for a while.

What’s truly remarkable is to compare Watson’s figures to some of the all-time greats. His recent two-year run with an All-rounder ratio of 1.94 is pretty stellar; the top four over the course of their career have a ratio in the 1.6-1.8 range. Based on his overall career numbers and not just his recent purple patch, Watto still fares pretty well with a 1.40 ratio that puts him ahead of Pollock, Hadlee, Botham and Kapil Dev.

Of course, the others have accumulated their numbers over the course of an entire career and Watson’s place in the pantheon of greats will be based on his ability to sustain his form. But if he can keep going at his current rate, then you better try and catch as many Watto performances as possible because you will be witnessing something very special.