Jacques Kallis Profile

Jacques Kallis Profile

No batsman prizes his wicket more highly, and no wicket in all of cricket is more highly prized. Jacques Kallis is the broad-shouldered colossus of the South African team, a figure whose looming presence inspires calm in some and dread in others. Few players who belong to the modern age are a better fit for the notion of the classical cricketer. Kallis is a fine, forceful batsman who has at his disposal both a rock-solid technique and a mind impervious to distraction. Though his role as a bowler diminishes with each passing season, he will be remembered as a purveyor of sometimes surprising pace and swing, and awkward bounce. In the slips, his sure-handedness and rattlesnake reflexes make ridiculous catches look regulation. 

Kallis announced himself as a batsman of international stature in his seventh Test, the drawn Boxing Day epic at Melbourne in 1997, when he scored a fighting 101 on a worn last-day pitch. Not even Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne could dislodge him before he had all but saved the match for South Africa.

Over the years Kallis has delivered many such innings, performances in which grit is a far more valuable commodity than glitz to a South African team that remains more confident in the field and with its fast bowlers in full cry than as a batting unit. Kallis has willingly shouldered the role of the fulcrum around which the wheel must try to turn. But, occasionally, he has unfurled a stroke of startling aggression that hints at what might have been.

Certainly, his lofted drive, which begins with a menacing backlift before uncoiling into the irresistible momentum of a mighty downward swoop of the bat and finishing in a twirl of Baroque, might be described as Mozart in motion. In the lightning flash of that fleeting instant it really does seem as if Kallis could, in the words of one observer, hit a six whenever he felt like it.

His critics, particularly those who have a limited understanding of the dynamics of the South African team, accuse him of not dominating attacks he has already ground into the dust, of unnecessarily slow scoring, and of failing to take the match situation into account as he plots his innings. All of which hints at selfishness, which is quite ironical, because his team-mates vouch for the fact that Kallis bats the way he does precisely because he puts his team first and his personal ambitions some way behind. It's the only way he knows how.

 

Full name Jacques Henry Kallis

Born October 16, 1975, Pinelands, Cape Town, Cape Province

Current age 35 years 38 days

Major teams South Africa, Africa XI, Cape Cobras, Glamorgan, ICC World XI, Middlesex, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Warriors, Western Province

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm fast-medium

Batting and fielding averages

    Mat     Inns     NO     Runs     HS     Ave     BF     SR     100     50     4s     6s     Ct     St
Tests     141     239     36     11334     189*     55.83     25364     44.68     36     54     1257     78     160     0
ODIs     307     293     53     11002     139     45.84     15117     72.77     17     80     862     129     116     0
T20Is     16     16     1     512     73     34.13     427     119.90     0     4     40     17     6     0
First-class     231     379     53     17686     200     54.25             53     92             222     0
List A     401     383     64     14183     155*     44.46             23     102             145     0
Twenty20     67     67     10     1978     89*     34.70     1729     114.40     0     17     200     45     24     0

Bowling averages

    Mat     Inns     Balls     Runs     Wkts     BBI     BBM     Ave     Econ     SR     4w     5w     10
Tests     141     234     17959     8429     266     6/54     9/92     31.68     2.81     67.5     7     5     0
ODIs     307     269     10270     8264     259     5/30     5/30     31.90     4.82     39.6     2     2     0
T20Is     16     12     186     229     5     2/20     2/20     45.80     7.38     37.2     0     0     0
First-class     231         26694     12393     401     6/54         30.90     2.78     66.5         8     0
List A     401         13079     10270     335     5/30     5/30     30.65     4.71     39.0     3     3     0
Twenty20     67     59     1112     1482     36     3/16     3/16     41.16     7.99     30.8     0     0     0

Career statistics

Test debut     South Africa v England at Durban, Dec 14-18, 1995
Last Test     Pakistan v South Africa at Dubai, Nov 12-16, 2010

ODI debut     South Africa v England at Cape Town, Jan 9, 1996
Last ODI     Pakistan v South Africa at Dubai, Nov 8, 2010

T20I debut     South Africa v New Zealand at Johannesburg, Oct 21, 2005
Last T20I     West Indies v South Africa at North Sound, May 19, 2010

First-class debut     1993/94
Last First-class     Pakistan v South Africa at Dubai, Nov 12-16, 2010
List A debut     1994/95
Last List A     Pakistan v South Africa at Dubai, Nov 8, 2010
Twenty20 debut     Eastern Cape v Western Province Boland at Port Elizabeth, Apr 13, 2004
Last Twenty20     Mumbai Indians v Royal Challengers Bangalore at Durban, Sep 19, 2010