Best Test/ODI Keeper..

[Durham_CCC]

Test: Kumar Sangakarra
ODI : Mc'Cullum.

 

[quick4mindia]

Test: Sangakaara
ODI : Sangakaara


Thank You!!

 

[Indipper]

When you say 'best keeper' do you mean a guy who is generally the most useful player that happens to wear gloves during the fielding part or someone who is actually good at keeping wicket? Cause there's no way it's Brendan McCullum if you mean the latter.

 

[Richard]

The best Test wicketkeepers are generally the best ODI wicketkeepers as well. Wicketkeeping skill is one of the precious few things that doesn't really alter much at all over the game-forms, though I suppose being able to stand up to 80-81-82mph bowling (really not important at all in Tests) does come into things in ODIs and the best wicketkeepers are expected to do that.

The best wicketkeeper-batsmen, however, would change. Irrefutably the best ODI wicketkeeper-batsman right now and throughout the last 3 years has been Mahendra Dhoni.

Right now there aren't any established high-class Test wicketkeeper-batsmen. England don't have one; West Indies don't have one; Australia have Haddin who's still getting his feet under the table; Pakistan don't play Tests any more and the only wicketkeeper who's played for them recently is woefully inept; South Africa, Sri Lanka and New Zealand have an excellent wicketkeeper who's no more than a useful lower-order batsman; and India have Dhoni.

It's saying something when Mahendra Dhoni is probably the best Test wicketkeeper-batsman as well as the best in ODIs. It really is.

 

[Arjun]

There are very few wicketkeepers left in international cricket, almost none.

 

[haroon510]

Sangakara but he doesn't keep.. which is very unfortuante

 

[Precambrian]

Sangakara but he doesn't keep.. which is very unfortuante

Why? Not keeping has improved his batting performances by a mile, and his replacement is not at all inferior. In fact, I'd say Prasanna Jayawardene is the best keeper in test cricket at the moment. Followed by Boucher and Dhoni.

ODIs, no question, Dhoni.

 

[fredfertang]

It would be James Foster but for a collective selectorial blind spot

 

[Richard]

As regards Sangakkara - I myself just wish he'd done the same thing all career. I don't really mind whether it's not keeping or keeping, though I suppose I'd lean toward never having kept wicket.

We just don't know how good a wicketkeeper-batsman he might've been had he kept all the time, nor how good a batsman he might've been had he never kept wicket.

Not dissimilar to Alec Stewart, though I know for sure what I wish had happened there - I wish he'd kept wicket in every England Test between 1993 and 2003. Until 1996/97, Stewart was no wicketkeeper-batsman of any note, and between 1996/97 and 2002/03, he was one of the very best in history.

 

[Richard]

It would be James Foster but for a collective selectorial blind spot

Or Chris Read, but for an Indian channel wanting cricket and choosing to have its own league if it couldn't get real cricket.

Foster in Tests; Read in ODIs. Would've gone quite nicely IMO. Both outstanding wicketkeepers and both batsmen who have plenty to offer even if ideally you'd like something a bit more.

 

[Arjun]

Or Chris Read, but for an Indian channel wanting cricket and choosing to have its own league if it couldn't get real cricket.

Foster in Tests; Read in ODIs. Would've gone quite nicely IMO. Both outstanding wicketkeepers and both batsmen who have plenty to offer even if ideally you'd like something a bit more.

So Foster has improved a lot over the last few years? Not too long ago, I heard many write him off as a bits-and-pieces keeper not good at either, but I haven't seen much of him out here- maybe the next few matches that STAR Cricket shows will have something.

 

[fredfertang]

So Foster has improved a lot over the last few years? Not too long ago, I heard many write him off as a bits-and-pieces keeper not good at either, but I haven't seen much of him out here- maybe the next few matches that STAR Cricket shows will have something.

That's what I thought but whenever the television cameras were on him last summer his keeping was absolutely superb - it even made the 20/20 worth watching

 

[Richard]

Foster's never been much of a batsman in the shorter game. However, he's a better long-form batsman now than he was in 2001/02, and even then demonstrated he had the ability to hang around and be good for a 20\30-odd (quite possibly an undefeated one) in more innings' than not. Now he can do that and more, which despite a far wider range of shots neither Geraint Jones nor Tim Ambrose have (yet in Ambrose's case) done.

And his wicketkeeping has improved out of sight in the last 4-5 years. He is a far, far cry from the liability who played ODIs in 2001/02 and was dropped for Marcus Trescothick.

 

[Uppercut]

When you say 'best keeper' do you mean a guy who is generally the most useful player that happens to wear gloves during the fielding part or someone who is actually good at keeping wicket? Cause there's no way it's Brendan McCullum if you mean the latter.

Brendon McCullum is awesome behind the stumps. His batting, no. Although there's definite potential there.

As the question goes, taking everything into account i'd go with Dhoni in both forms.

 

[Athlai]

McCullum probably best with the gloves.

Sanga's best in both forms (keeper-batsman) if he keeps.

Dhoni best in both forms otherwise.

 

[S.P. Fleming]

McCullam best wicket keeper in both forms and best ODI wicket-keeper batsman.

Sangakara best test wicket-keeper batsman.

 

[Richard]

How on Earth is McCullum (or Sangakkara for that matter) a better ODI wicketkeeper-batsman than Dhoni?

(And let's emphasise again - Sangakkara of late has been batsman in Tests; wicketkeeper-batsman in ODIs)