Jacques Kallis by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Player:

JH Kallis

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DateLine: 17th April 2009

 

Jacques Kallis is a throwback to Test cricket's more sedate age.After a distinctly ordinary start to his Test career, Kallis blossomed into arguably the world's leading batsman, with a defensive technique second-to-none, and the adhesive qualities of a Cape Point limpet. Generally a placid and undemonstrative man, he nailed down the crucial No. 3 position in the South African batting order after a number of players had been tried and discarded, and his stock rose exponentially from that moment. In 2005, he was honoured as the ICC's Test and overall Player of the Year, after a run of performances against West Indies and England that marked him out as the biggest scalp in the modern game.

 

Till the emergence of Andrew Flintoff, Kallis was by some distance the leading all-rounder in the world game, capable of swinging the ball sharply at surprising pace off a relaxed run-up. He is a strong man with powerful shoulders and a deep chest and he has the capacity to play a wide array of attacking strokes, if not always the inclination. To add to all this, he is a fine slip fielder.