Moeen Ali has reacehd the all-rounders’ double of 3,000 runs and 200 wickets in Test cricket, becoming the 16th player to do so. Here’s the list of 15 greats of the game who he has joined in this elite club.
Moeen had 200 wickets and 2,977 runs in Test cricket at the start of the Old Trafford Test. Promoted to No.3, he made his way to 23 to see him enter the exclusive club of all-rounders with 3,000 runs and 200 wickets.
A total of 15 players had achieved that double in Test cricket before him, including three Englishmen. Here is a look at each of them.
The stats under the names refer to the Test career stats of the player.
Shane Warne
708 wickets, 3154 runs
The greatest leg-spinner of the modern era – or perhaps of all time – Warne has picked up the second-most wickets in Test history. He was a more than able lower-order batter, a handy addition to Australia’s long and legendary batting lineup who famously never hit a century. However, he did score 12 fifties, including four eighties and a 99.
Stuart Broad
600 wickets, 3,640 runs
Broad is not far from the 600th Test wicket. Across 165 matches, he has also scored more than 3,000 runs, mostly from No.8 to 11. In fact, he was perceived as a reasonable bowling all-rounder in the early part of his career. In 2010, he made an astonishing 169 from No.9 against Pakistan, and he averaged past 30 after 20 Tests. Then a steady decline began, which many attribute to the Varun Aaron bouncer that broke his nose in 2014.
R Ashwin
474 wickets, 3129 runs
Arguably India’s greatest ever off-spinner, R Ashwin has done enough to fall into the all-rounder’s category. Nearing 500 Test wickets, he also has a solid batting record, including five Test centuries and several other rearguard efforts, most notably the 128-ball 39 not out with a stiff back in an epic resistance alongside Hanuma Vihari in the drawn SCG Test of 2020/21.
Kapil Dev
434 wickets, 5248 runs
Widely considered the greatest all-rounder to hail from India, Kapil, a World Cup-winning captain, inspired generations with his all-round prowess. He broke Richard Hadlee’s record to become Test cricket’s leading wicket-taker, speed and swing both his allies. With the bat, Kapil was ferocious and uninhibited, smashing eight rapid Test centuries, all while batting between No.6 and 8. He remains the only Test cricketer with 5,000 runs and 400 wickets.
Richard Hadlee
431 wickets, 3124 runs
The first to breach the 400-wicket mark in Test cricket, Hadlee’s bowling was the cornerstone of New Zealand’s success in the seventies and eighties. His name was taken in the same breath as other greats of the same era, with his dynamic batting style being a regular feature down the order, the numbers including an unbeaten Test 150.
Shaun Pollock
421 wickets, 3781 runs
Unnervingly accurate, Pollock was the smooth-running engine of South Africa’s pace attack of the 1990s and 2000s. Curving the ball around at pace, Pollock became his country’s leading wicket-taker. With the bat, he was plucky and gritty, scoring as many as 16 half-centuries and two centuries in his Test career.
Ian Botham
383 wickets, 5200 runs
One of only two players in the history of the game to have taken more than 350 wickets and scored five thousand runs, Botham is regarded as one of the game’s greatest all-rounders. His career was an eventful one, both on the field and off it. He had 27 five-fors and 14 centuries across 102 Test matches. No other player has a higher count for both metrics.
Imran Khan
362 wickets, 3807 runs
Pakistan’s only ODI World Cup-winning captain, Imran was a talismanic, charming leader of men who could turn games with both bat and ball. He scored six Test centuries and took 23 five-fors, and could move both the old and the new ball at rapid pace. And he was good enough to play for Pakistan even as a specialist batter.
Daniel Vettori
362 wickets, 4531 runs
Apart from being a high-quality left-arm finger-spinner, Vettori was an often underrated batter. At 18, he became the youngest New Zealander to play Test cricket, in 1997. His 2227 runs from No.8 in Test cricket are the most by any player in that position.
Chaminda Vaas
355 wickets, 3089 runs
A traditional left-arm swing bowler, Vaas is the best new-ball Test bowler in Sri Lankan history. He made up for his lack of pace with accuracy and variations. He was also more than a handy lower-order batter, scoring 13 fifties and an unbeaten century across 111 Test matches.
Jacques Kallis
292 wickets, 13289 runs
South Africa’s highest run-scorer and sixth-highest wicket-taker, Kallis was two players in one. The biggest point of difference between Kallis and some of the other great all-rounders was that he could bat in the top three, and was a more-than-decent backup seamer in a team that was generally never short of top-quality fast bowlers.
Garry Sobers
235 wickets, 8032 runs
Still regarded as one of the best all-rounders to have graved the game, Sobers could do almost anything and everything. One of the greatest batters of all time at any position, Sobers bowled medium pace, finger-spin, and wrist spin, and was an outstanding fielder at any position, often taking spectacular catches. His 28,000-plus first-class runs and 1,000-plus first-class wickets are a testament to his cricketing genius.
Shakib Al Hasan
233 wickets, 4454 runs
The greatest cricketer Bangladesh have produced, Shakib debuted as a 19-year-old in 2006 and has now spent nearly 17 years at the top. He has adapted and evolved his game over the years to play all three formats and fulfil various roles as a player and a leader.
Andrew Flintoff
226 wickets, 3845 runs
If Flintoff’s career averages do not look spectacular, it was because he was inconsistent. At his peak, however, he could swing the course of a match with bat or ball. He could hit a long ball, and pound the deck hard while bowling fast, reverse swinging at great pace, and plucking the odd catch out of thin air.
Chris Cairns
218 wickets, 3320 runs
Part of the core of the New Zealand side throughout the 1990s, Cairns was a fearsome batter and a sharp fast bowler at his best. He was equally good across formats. picking 200-plus wickets and scoring nearly 5,000 runs in ODIs as well.
Moeen Ali
201 wickets, 3,008 runs
England off-spinner Moeen Ali retired in 2021 with his Test tallies just shy of the dual milestones on both fronts, but answered Ben Stokes’ SOS call for the Ashes and reached each mark during the series.