The key focus of this article will be 7 Greatest Indian All Rounders in Cricket History. India is the birthplace of many great batsmen in the form of Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Virat Kohli as well as many great bowlers like Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble, Jasprit Bumrah and so many more but if there’s any one aspect that India lags behind from the other cricketing nations that is the production of top quality all-rounders.
India has always been reliant on their top-order batsmen and spin bowling department to bring them success throughout history until recently when the winds have tilted towards the fast bowlers as well but there are only a few all-rounders who can win them matches single-handedly.
However, the IPL is providing a platform for budding talents in the all-rounder department but to what extent will they be successful only time will tell. Even though we have only a handful of quality Indian all-rounders, there shouldn’t be any reproach in admitting that those few are phenomenal talents on the International stage. Here we present 7 Greatest Indian All Rounders in Cricket History.
7 Greatest Indian All Rounders in Cricket History
7. Irfan Pathan
Irfan Pathan had all the expectations of the Indian cricket fraternity when he arrived on the scene early in his career. People had their hopes pinned on him to become the next Kapil Dev. And he did make an instant impact as an all-rounder because he had a brilliant left-arm bowling who could swing the ball both ways. Irfan Pathan became the first ever Indian bowler to achieve a test hattrick in the first 3 balls of a test match.
He played an integral part in the 2007 Victorious T20 World Cup Indian Team due to his ability to hit quick boundaries late in the innings and was even awarded the Man of the Match in the Final. Owing to his steep rise in such a short period Irfan was signed by Kings XI Punjab in the first IPL season in 2008 and a lot of expectations were bestowed upon him. But unfortunately his IPL career never really took off and a tragic decline in his form impacted his International career as well.
6. Manoj Prabhakar
Manoj Prabhakar made his International debut in 1984 when he arrived as a right-arm medium pacer. He was mostly used as an economic bowler to build pressure on the opposition and dry out runs rather than being used as a strike bowler. And still he managed to bag a total of five 5-wicket hauls in his career across ODI and test formats. He also picked up 96 wickets from 39 test matches and 157 wickets from 130 ODI matches.
Manoj Prabhakar’s batting skill became more obvious at the later phase of his career as he scored 20 half-centuries in total and three centuries as well. Unfortunately he became a controversial figure towards the end of his career for accusing his Captain Mohammad Azharuddin for match fixing.
5. Ravi Shastri
Ravi Shastri is an all-rounder on and off the pitch and that’s how he’s best described. Shastri revolutionized the game in his own way by going against the flow of the game then. He took his time and trusted his defensive technique and scored big runs while the other batsmen were trying to score quickly by playing more shots. Shashtri was a rare breed of player because he was a right-handed batsman who bowled left-arm orthodox.
Despite his reputation for a slow strike rate, one time he hit 6 sixes in an over against Baroda during a Ranji Trophy match for Bombay. Ravi Shashtri had impressive career stats of 3830 runs & 152 wickets in Test cricket and 3108 runs & 129 wickets in ODI cricket. Ravi Shashtri has proved himself as a successful coach and commentator as well.
4. Hardik Pandya
One of the most talented and exciting all-rounders in world cricket right now is Hardik Pandya. He arrived in the IPL 2025 season for Mumbai Indians without any prior experience of first-class cricket. Mumbai Indians is known to unearth many such uncapped Indian players who are a complete surprise to the cricketing world and one such was the skinny T20 specialist who can bowl medium pace and has an explosive power in his bat.
Hardik Pandya attracted attention in his first-ever IPL season earning a deserved call-up to the 2016 T20 World Cup squad. Hardik didn’t disappoint as he proved himself by playing the lone-warrior innings in the 2017 Champions Trophy Final against Pakistan and if it wasn’t for Jadeja’s wrong call resulting in his run out he might’ve very well won India the match single-handedly.
3. Ravichandran Ashwin
Ravichandran Ashwin came into limelight as one of the major pillars of success for CSK’s dominance in IPL alongside Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. He is a living example that IPL is not a platform for just budding T20 stars but for all three formats. He has been a trusted servant of Captain Cool for a very long time.
Ashwin has had many ups and downs in the Indian team as he replaced Harbhajan Singh in the team initially and broke test records for fun. He is a very smart cricketer with a brilliant cricketing mind and IQ. Ravi did lose his spot in white-ball cricket due to the overflow of spinners in Indian cricket but no one has been able to replicate his test match dominance. Ashwin is a very capable batsman as well as he’s played some sensible knocks and cheeky ramp shots and remains one of the best all-rounders for India.
2. Ravindra Jadeja
Ravindra Jadeja is the man who simply revolutionized the fielding sector in India. His energy in the field and relentless running along with his bullet throws at the stumps will give any batsmen nightmares. Even Sir Gary Sobers was all praise of Sir Ravindra Jadeja. He played as the vice-captain of Kohli in the Under-19 World Cup. Initially, Jadeja struggled a lot to secure a spot for himself in the Indian team.
Jadeja is still improving as a limited-overs all-rounder but his partnership with Ashwin is nothing but deadly especially in Indian conditions. But currently, Jadea is a winner in all aspects, be it his economical and tight bowling or quick-fire runs like the way he helped CSK win the IPL trophy last year by scoring a six in the last ball of the last over in the final against Gujarat or his fielding and catching. The Indian team simply can’t risk excluding such a match-winner from the team.
1. Kapil Dev
No doubt as to who takes the 1st Place in our list of 7 Greatest Indian all rounders of all time and fittingly so because India never came close to producing someone like Kapil Dev. Kapil Dev bowled very long spells without any fitness issues and as a right-arm medium pacer that says a lot about the character of the player. Kapil Dev is India’s 3rd leading wicket-taker in Test.
But of course, out of everything else, the one moment that’ll keep him immortal was the 1983 World Cup victory. His amazing catch to dismiss Viv Richards in the final was the turning point of the match as the West Indies lost their grip of the match. Kapil Dev proved himself as a bowler, as a batsman and as a captain. Hopefully, India can find its next Kapil Dev.
| Position | Player | Matches | Runs | Wickets |
| 1. | Kapil Dev | 356 | 9031 | 687 |
| 2. | Ravindra Jadeja | 328 | 6017 | 546 |
| 3. | Ravichandran Ashwin | 275 | 4076 | 717 |
| 4. | Hardik Pandya | 189 | 3649 | 174 |
| 5. | Manoj Prabhakar | 169 | 8115 | 226 |
| 6. | Ravi Shastri | 230 | 6938 | 280 |
| 7. | Irfan Pathan | 173 | 2821 | 301 |