Following his latest double century, I was going to sing the praises of South African opener Graeme Smith. However, after the blatant ball-tampering by Faf du Plessis in the thumping victory of Pakistan in Dubai, I find it hard to believe his skipper was ignorant of his team-mate's cheating. So instead I shall concentrate on the performances of AB De Villiers and Asad Shafiq.
AB's contribution to South Africa's rise to the top in Tests and many triumphs in limited-overs games is well known. Averaging 50-odd in both major formats is remarkable, and remember he is pretty much an all-rounder given his rejuvenated role as wicket-keeper. His immense strike rate in 50- and 20-over matches comes in contrast to a much steadier one in Tests. That's not a criticism; quite the opposite. These days, few batsmen have the ability and temperament to adapt so superbly to different formats and circumstances.
I must admit the rise of Asad Shafiq has taken me by surprise. Making four centuries at number six, the same as De Villiers, has been beaten by only eighteen others in Test history, and they have come in only 23 Tests. Three years ago, he made his Pakistan debut in the same part of the world against the same opposition, who again scored more than 500 featuring a big double-century. In 2009 it wasn't Smith, but good old AB, who crashed his still record 278 but Pakistan's batsmen didn't roll over to the spinners on that occasion and the game was drawn.
In the old days when I was growing up, the number six slot was usually reserved for all-rounders. Sir Garry Sobers has a collection of eight centuries in that position and is one of the all-time greats Despite for many years holding the world record for Test runs he often batted at only six when these days such a battig genius would probably bat a bit higher, bowler or not. Others near the top of the 'six' order of merit include other famous all-rounders Tony Greig (seven), Asif Iqbal and Steve Waugh (six apiece), Ian Botham and Ravi Shastri (five).
However there has been a recent move towards having specialist batsmen at six. Perhaps this is because bowlers have become better batsmen as a result of the T20 explosion, and countries have been able to field just four specialist bowlers augmented by occasional spin by players at the top. It happened with Clive Lloyd later in his career, Allan Border and, further back, another Aussie Doug Walters. This decade, the likes of Ian Bell, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Mike Hussey have done the job extremely effectively, marshalling the tail, stopping the rot or just building big partnerships to crush hopes of the opposition.
It will be interesting to see whether Asad Shafiq remains at number six, especially with Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan nearing the end of their careers. AB, meanwhile, could contribute runs absolutely anywhere. Indeed, he has batted everywhere from one to eight, but more often at six than any other place. His average is even better when the designated wicketkeeper than when playing only as batsman so maybe he is just as much an all-rounder as Sobers, Greig, Iqbal et al.
