England all-rounder Ben Stokes
Former Indian cricketer and presently an analyst, Aakash Chopra, on Saturday picked England cricketer Ben Stokes as the number one all-rounder in the world across formats.
Aakash's opinion came after Stokes's 10th Test century on Friday in the second game of the series against West Indies at the Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester. Stokes eventually scored 176 off 356 balls in what was the longest Test innings of his career, and combined with opener Dominic Sibley to stitch a massive 260-run partnership to guide England to 469 for 9.
Aakash, however, backed his opinion with Stokes's batting and bowling averages across formats over the last two years.
"At this point in time, there is no doubt in my mind that Ben Stokes is the number one all-rounder in the world across all three formats. He has an average of 43 in Tests, 59 in ODIs over the last two years," Aakash said on his Youtube channel.
Stokes had earlier played a key role for England with the bat and with the ball in the opening Test in Southampton last week, but the hosts were defeated by 4 wickets.
"He has a good bowling average across all formats as well, there is no doubt that Stokes is the number one all-rounder in the world across all formats," Aakash added.
The former cricketer also picked former Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan as the second-best all-rounder and India's Ravindra Jadeja as third.
Stokes, with his century, also became the fifth all-rounder to amass a Test double of 10 hundreds and 150-plus wickets and second from his nation after Ian Botham.
England had eventually declared their innings before ending day 2 in a commanding position with Sam Curran removing Windies opener John Campbell early in their innings. The visitors closed day 2 on 32 for 1.
