5 cricketers who opened both batting and bowling consistently
In the long and illustrious history of the gentleman’s game,some players have often exhibited special skills with both bat and ball which left the spectators bewildered. Starting the proceedings with either the bat or ball is always a challenging task and if a player does that in the same match then it surely is a commendable feat. There have been many a time when a cricketer had to start the proceedings with both bat and ball and the particular player surely deserves plaudits for his humongous efforts.
Our research helped us come with five of the best ones who have done it on a consistent basis and make a list of them. We considered players who did it more than 10 times in any of the formats and because of that reason we had to drop names like Irfan Pathan, Sunil Gavaskar, Lance Klusener and many others who also opened the bowling and batting in the same match
Here is the list of the 5 players:
#5 Neil Johnson
The talented Zimbabwean all-rounder Neil Johnson had a short but impactful international career in which he scaled great heights. A naturally-gifted all-rounder rose to fame during the 1999 Cricket World Cup when he won three Man-of-the-Match awards.
Johnson on several occasions had opened the bowling and batting in many ODIs and did a decent job of it as well. In a game against Australia in the 1999 World Cup at the mecca of cricket, Lord’s, he scored a brilliant 132 whilst also picking up 2 wickets to send shivers down the Australia’s’ spine.
Though Zimbabwe lost that game, Johnson was adjudged the man of the match for his exemplary performance. Johnson also achieved a rare feat when he opened both the batting and bowling, bowl ten overs and score a century against Pakistan in 1998. An attacking stroke-playing southpaw and a decent swing bowler- he was truly a lethal combo for the Zimbabwean cricket team back in the late nineties.to