Joe Root is number one

[Coronis]

They’ve got stats for everything these days, is there a measure for who’s the best catcher based on how difficult all the chances they get are?

No.

 

[kyear2]

I still think players like Mark Taylor and Mark Waugh were better than Joe Root in terms of catching. It helps when you play a lot of Test matches.

Not nearly comparable. They are in the upper pantheon, he's just accumulated numbers, not to add fielding at the least challenging of the cordon positions.

Taylor and Waugh are top 6 or so? No idea how far I would have to go down to place Root, but I would guess outside the top 20.

 

[kyear2]

Normally a very good catcher, but some of the drops in this series…bloody hell

Not only this series.

 

[The_CricketUmpire]

Not nearly comparable. They are in the upper pantheon, he's just accumulated numbers, not to add fielding at the least challenging of the cordon positions.

Taylor and Waugh are top 6 or so? No idea how far I would have to go down to place Root, but I would guess outside the top 20.

And with the greatest respect to Joe Root...clearly he can catch..look at his stats...he has caught a lot...but he has accumulated a lot over time, that is..over many Test matches.

He averages 0.727 catches per innings. Mark Waugh averaged 0.738 catches per innings. Mark Taylor averaged 0.796 catches per innings. If we went purely on average catches per innings it would be:

Bob Simpson: 0.940
Steve Smith: 0.884
Stephen Fleming: 0.859
Tony Greig: 0.813
Mark Taylor: 0.796
Graeme Hick: 0.782

These are the players in the high "0.9s" to high 0.7s" range.

But yeah in terms of best cstchers I've seen, certainly in the slips area - Mark Waugh and Mark Taylor stand out as does Stephen Fleming. I don't think Joe Root is as good as them despite the number of catches he has taken.

 

[The_CricketUmpire]

They’ve got stats for everything these days, is there a measure for who’s the best catcher based on how difficult all the chances they get are?

I don't think there is.

 

[kyear2]

And with the greatest respect to Joe Root...clearly he can catch..look at his stats...he has caught a lot...but he has accumulated a lot over time, that is..over many Test matches.

He averages 0.727 catches per innings. Mark Waugh averaged 0.738 catches per innings. Mark Taylor averaged 0.796 catches per innings. If we went purely on average catches per innings it would be:

Bob Simpson: 0.940
Steve Smith: 0.884
Stephen Fleming: 0.859
Tony Greig: 0.813
Mark Taylor: 0.796
Graeme Hick: 0.782

These are the players in the high "0.9s" to high 0.7s" range.

But yeah in terms of best cstchers I've seen, certainly in the slips area - Mark Waugh and Mark Taylor stand out as does Stephen Fleming. I don't think Joe Root is as good as them despite the number of catches he has taken.

One area where stats don't tell everything. The best slip catchers that I've seen during their career.

Kallis
Waugh
Hooper
Ponting

None of them appear on the list, nor does Hammond, Sobers, Richardson, Lloyd, nor Chappell.

I also tend to rate 2nd slip guys higher than their colleagues at 1st.

 

[The_CricketUmpire]

One area where stats don't tell everything. The best slip catchers that I've seen during their career.

Kallis
Waugh
Hooper
Ponting

None of them appear on the list, nor does Hammond, Sobers, Richardson, Lloyd, nor Chappell.

I also tend to rate 2nd slip guys higher than their colleagues at 1st.

This is a good stat: most catches in International Cricket, that is Test/ODI/T20I combined. Catches per innings stat is interesting too plus not all of these players on the list played T20Is either:

Test+ODI+T20I matches | Fielding records | Most catches in career | ESPNcricinfo

Find records of Most catches in career in Test+ODI+T20I matches only on ESPNcricinfo.

www.espncricinfo.com

 

[Coronis]

This is a good stat: most catches in International Cricket, that is Test/ODI/T20I combined. Catches per innings stat is interesting too plus not all of these players on the list played T20Is either:

Test+ODI+T20I matches | Fielding records | Most catches in career | ESPNcricinfo

Find records of Most catches in career in Test+ODI+T20I matches only on ESPNcricinfo.

www.espncricinfo.com

Why?

 

[TheJediBrah]

I don't think I've ever seen anyone say that total catching numbers equates to catching ability, the same with keeping dismissals

 

[Molehill]

A better stat would be catches to chances ratio. There's no doubt that if Root had the hands of Kallis he'd be way past Dravid by now.

 

[GIMH]

I guess it goes back to the age old debate as to what constitutes a chance. Waaay before your time on here but if you search 'first chance average' you'll see what I mean...

 

[Molehill]

I guess it goes back to the age old debate as to what constitutes a chance. Waaay before your time on here but if you search 'first chance average' you'll see what I mean...

Yeah, we'd probably need to adapt the Expected Goals number from football. But there's no doubting that Root dropped two 90%ers over the weekend.

 

[GIMH]

Yeah, we'd probably need to adapt the Expected Goals number from football. But there's no doubting that Root dropped two 90%ers over the weekend.

The second one seemed harder to drop!

 

[Chin Music]

The second one seemed harder to drop!

I thought that the hook off Stone from Kamindu was a real shocker. A couple of overs later, a similar mistimed hook off Atkinson was snaffled easier. Root is probably a shade better than Cook, but not a lot.

 

[LangleyburyCCPlayer]

Yeah, we'd probably need to adapt the Expected Goals number from football. But there's no doubting that Root dropped two 90%ers over the weekend.

These analysts aren’t stupid, I’m sure they’d have thought of something like that, but would the sample sizes be large enough? There’s footage of all kinds of random cricket leagues these days, but it’s not as if the 4th division in Mongolia is getting streamed lol

 

[FBU]

Gone up from 881 to 923 in the rankings

 

[BazBall21]

Yeah one point off his best rating. He really should do well in the next 8 tests too.

 

[Howe_zat]

That's the 19th best peak ranking of all time, between G Pollock 927 and Walters 922.

Smith has a 947 from the end of 2017 (#2 behind Bradman) and Kohli has a 937 from 2018. Also Labuschagne shows up with a 937 too (after his 30th test).

 

[Johan]

what site was used to compare player's rating trends over careers again? Used to visit it frequently but forgot the name.

 

[Coronis]

what site was used to compare player's rating trends over careers again? Used to visit it frequently but forgot the name.

Cricket Player Rankings - Official ICC Player Rankings for International Cricket

ICC Player Rankings, find the highest rated players from all forms of the international game

www.relianceiccrankings.com