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All-rounders have always been the glue that holds a cricket team together.
They are the players who can change the game with bat or ball, often stepping into difficult moments and providing balance where it is most needed.
Yet, while names like Jacques Kallis, Kapil Dev and Ben Stokes dominate conversations about all-round greatness, there exists another group of players who never quite received the credit their performances merited.
Some played in eras of giants, others were victims of circumstance, and some were simply taken for granted.
Let’s take a look at seven of the most underrated all-rounders in the game’s history.
1. Chris Woakes (England)
- Rating as all-rounder: 8 out of 10
Woakes has long been labelled “Mr Dependable” in English cricket, but that reliability has perhaps diminished recognition of his quality. His Test record is outstanding: over 100 wickets at an average in the low 20s and more than 1,500 runs at better than 27.
With a smooth action and the ability to swing the new ball both ways, Chris Woakes has produced match-winning spells, particularly at Lord’s and Edgbaston.
He is also a clean striker with the bat, capable of rescuing innings from difficult situations.
The “nice guy” tag and his relative lack of pace compared with some of his contemporaries (Jofra Archer amongst others) may have masked his value, but few modern cricketers offered such balance across formats.
Having confirmed his retirement from international cricket his presence will be sorely missed.
2. Adrian Kuiper (South Africa)
- Rating as all-rounder: 8 out of 10
For South African fans of the early 1990s, Kuiper was the original “finisher” before the role was fashionable.
Known as the “poor man’s Ian Botham”, he had the knack of hitting the ball miles and chipping in with useful medium pace.
Kuiper’s international career was brief; it was limited by South Africa’s return from isolation and his own age by then, but in domestic cricket he was a talisman.
He brought a fearlessness that helped shape South Africa’s early one-day style.
Overshadowed by the emergence of Hansie Cronje and later Jacques Kallis, Kuiper deserves to be remembered as one of the game’s most effective short-format all-rounders of his generation.
There is a whole generation of Cape Town youngsters (Kallis and Herschelle Gibbs undoubtedly among them) who modelled their game around the Elgin apple farmer.
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3. Steve Tikolo (Kenya)
- Rating as all-rounder: 7 out of 10
Few players have carried the hopes of an entire nation the way Steve Tikolo did for Kenya. For over a decade, Tikolo was their heartbeat: captain, middle-order rock and a reliable off-spin option.
His batting was elegant, marked by timing and placement rather than brute force, while his bowling offered crucial breakthroughs.
Tikolo’s influence was most evident in Kenya’s 2003 World Cup run to the semi-finals, where his calm leadership inspired one of cricket’s great underdog stories.
He rarely faced the world’s best outside of ICC tournaments, which hurt his reputation, but among his peers he was widely respected as an all-rounder who could have thrived in any Test nation.
Many experts will still suggest that Tikolo is quite possibly the best player never to have played a Test.
4. Carl Hooper (West Indies)
- Rating as all-rounder: 7 out of 10
Gifted and graceful, Carl Hooper was often criticised for not living up to his immense potential. Yet beneath the languid style lay a highly effective allrounder for the West Indies.
With over 5,700 Test runs and 114 wickets, plus nearly 200 ODI scalps, Hooper provided balance to West Indies sides in transition. His off-spin, often underplayed, was vital in one-day cricket where he could stem the flow of runs.
What made Hooper underrated was perhaps the shadow of contemporaries like Brian Lara and Curtly Ambrose; his quieter contributions were easy to miss. For those who watched closely, however, Hooper was the definition of a complete cricketer.
5. Franklyn Stephenson (West Indies)
- Rating as all-rounder: 6 out of 10
Stephenson remains one of cricket’s great “what ifs.” A talented fast-bowling all-rounder, his international career was cut short due to participation in the Rebel Tours to South Africa during the Apartheid era.
Denied the chance to represent West Indies at the highest level, Stephenson became a legend in domestic cricket both in South Africa and in England.
He pioneered the slower-ball bouncer and produced remarkable double feats in county cricket, including the rare achievement of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in a season for Nottinghamshire in 1991.
His absence from international cricket is one of the sport’s enduring injustices, but those who saw him know he was a complete package: pace, control and lower order hitting power.
6. Chris Harris (New Zealand)
- Rating as all-rounder: 6 out of 10
Chris Harris was never flashy, but he was endlessly useful. A reliable one-day performer for New Zealand through the 1990s and early 2000s, Harris offered skiddy medium-pace that was deceptively hard to score off, coupled with gritty batting down the order.
His 250 ODI wickets and over 4,000 runs testify to his longevity and value. Harris’s all-round skills often went unnoticed in an era dominated by big names, but New Zealand’s ability to punch above their weight in limited-overs cricket owed much to his presence.
He was also a brilliant fielder, making him a genuine three-dimensional cricketer before the term became common.
7. Ravichandran Ashwin (India)
- Rating as all-rounder: 6 out of 10
Ashwin’s Test record with the ball of over 500 wickets, makes him one of the greatest spinners of the modern era. But his batting is frequently overlooked.
With five Test centuries and an average in the high 20s, Ashwin is more than capable of holding his own against the best. At his peak, he batted as high as No. 6, scoring crucial runs in tough conditions, particularly in India.
His skill with the willow has often been overshadowed by his bowling brilliance, but Ashwin embodies the essence of the underrated all-rounder: never fully recognised for the breadth of his contribution.
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