Though India have got many great wicketkeepers in history, sadly, none of them fared well for their side with the bat. Right from Kiran More, Farokh Engineer to the latest MS Dhoni, none of them got much success in Australian conditions. Perhaps, this kept Rishabh Pant at the centre stage in the ongoing Australian series.
However, unlike all the other wicketkeepers, Rishabh Pant has got the unique technique. On his day, he can tear apart any bowling unit with his majestic strokes. Further, he has also got a decent domestic record when he toured Australia.
Rishabh Pant already delivered the goods in overseas series. He got his maiden century against England and also followed it up beautifully with an identical score of 92 in both innings against Windies Test side.
Syed Kirami is the most successful Indian wicketkeeper in Australia:
As per the statistics, Syed Kirmani has been the better-fared wicketkeeping-batsman for Team India. However, they aren’t that great when you dig into the numbers. He has got 471 runs in his kitty, which has kept him ahead of MS Dhoni.
MS Dhoni tallied 311 runs in 18 innings at a modest averageof 19.43. Coming to the current chairman of selectors MSK Prasad, he totalled 52 at 8.66 in six innings. He toured Australia way back in 1999-2000.
Farokh Engineer and Parthiv Patel also fared better as per the standards of the other Indian wicketkeepers. Farokh scored 215 while Parthiv scored 160 runs. Both knocked them in six innings.
Kiran More also tasted a fair bit of success, who has 143 runs from six innings. Wriddhiman Saha scored 111 runs in six innings at an average of 18.50. In total, only 6 players crossed 100-run tally.
As far as the dismissals are concerned, Dhoni held the most in Australia: 35 (31 catches, four stumpings). Then came Kirmani with 27 (18 catches, nine stumpings) and Engineer, More, Pandit and Parthiv with 11 each.
Also, here is the list:
Name | Matches | Innings | Runs | High Score | Average | 50 |
S Kirmani | 11 | 17 | 471 | 55 | 29.43 | 2 |
MS Dhoni | 8 | 18 | 311 | 57* | 19.43 | 1 |
F Engineer | 4 | 8 | 215 | 89 | 26.87 | 1 |
P Patel | 4 | 6 | 160 | 62 | 32 | 1 |
K More | 3 | 6 | 143 | 67* | 28.6 | 1 |
W Saha | 3 | 6 | 111 | 35 | 18.5 | 0 |
MSK Prasad | 3 | 6 | 52 | 14 | 8.66 | 0 |
C Pandit | 2 | 3 | 31 | 15 | 10.33 | 0 |
PK Sen | 3 | 6 | 29 | 13 | 5.8 | 0 |
J Irani | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2* | 3 | 0 |