Former South Africa captain and all-rounder Jacques Kallis says quality all-rounders have become a scarcity in modern-day cricket, especially in Test cricket, because of “too much cricket across formats”.

“It is a tough question to answer, all-rounders don’t come around every day. There aren’t many throughout the history. Lot of things, amount of cricket that is played certainly plays a role,” Kallis said.

While he didn’t name the IPL, the former KKR player and coach isn’t a great fan of the ‘Impact Player’ rule where a team can change one player during its batting or bowling innings as per need.

“A few T20 competitions have substitutes and I am not a big fan of that as it takes away the all-rounder out of your team. The teams that do not have good all-rounders are now playing with 12 men. There are a lot of little things that add up to why there aren’t too many all-rounders at the moment”.

India begin their tour of South Africa on Sunday. The focus will be on the two Test matches, which are a part of the World Test Championship cycle.

“This is a good Indian team but South Africa is tough to beat in South Africa. Centurion will probably suit South Africa and Newlands will probably suit India. It will be a good series and it will come down to one or two sessions that one team might play better than the other. It would be a closely fought contest,” said Kallis.

He stressed on the luck factor for winning ICC events.

“You need a little bit of luck in these tournaments to go your way. You could end up being at the wrong end of the toss or bad end of the conditions, you need a little bit of luck, as players certainly don’t go out there to lose,” he said.