Wicket-keeper

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Wicket-keeper in characteristic full squatting position, facing a delivery from a slow pace or spin bowler Cricket wicket keeper.jpg
Wicket-keeper in characteristic full squatting position, facing a delivery from a slow pace or spin bowler
Wicket-keeper in characteristic partial squatting position (together with slip fielders), facing a delivery from a fast bowler. Gilly and the slips.jpg
Wicket-keeper in characteristic partial squatting position (together with slip fielders), facing a delivery from a fast bowler.

In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. The wicket-keeper is the only member of the fielding side permitted to wear gloves and external leg guards. [1] The role of the keeper is governed by Law 27 and of the Laws of Cricket . [1]

Contents

Adam Gilchrist of Australia standing up to the stumps against England during the fourth test of the 2005 Ashes series in England. Strauss dismissal.jpg
Adam Gilchrist of Australia standing up to the stumps against England during the fourth test of the 2005 Ashes series in England.
AH Jarvis in wicket-keeping equipment, c. 1897 Affie Jarvis SLNSW.jpg
AH Jarvis in wicket-keeping equipment, c. 1897

Stance

Initially, during the bowling of the ball the wicket-keeper crouches in a full squatting position but partly stands up as the ball is received. Australian wicket-keeper Sammy Carter (1878 to 1948) was the first to squat on his haunches rather than bend over from the waist (stooping). [2]

Purposes

The keeper's major function is to stop deliveries that pass the batsman (in order to prevent runs being scored as 'byes'), but he can also attempt to dismiss the batsman in various ways:

A keeper's position depends on the bowler: for fast bowling he will squat some distance from the stumps, in order to have time to react to edges from the batsman, while for slower bowling, he will come much nearer to the stumps (known as "standing up"), to pressure the batsman into remaining within the crease or risk being stumped. The more skilled the keeper, the faster the bowling to which he is able to "stand up", for instance Godfrey Evans often stood up to Alec Bedser. [3]

Like the other players on a cricket team the keepers will bat during the team's batting innings. At elite levels, wicket-keepers are generally expected to be proficient batters averaging considerably more than specialist bowlers. This wicket-keeper-batsman form became popular in the 1990s as the Australian national team saw success when elevating Adam Gilchrist to the team after the retirement of Ian Healy. Healy averaged 27.39 and 4,356 runs total from his 119 Test matches, and is viewed as a specialist wicket-keeper who had improved his marginally effective batting toward the end of his career. Gilchrist on the other hand was a dominating, powerful batsman from the start, playing 96 Test matches with a 47.60 average with 5,570 total runs despite playing 23 fewer matches. Gilchrist's success effectively forced the specialist wicket-keeper into extinction at the top levels of the sport as teams could no long afford to pick a mediocre or poor batsman in the position as long as the player who was chosen could perform up to basic standards of the wicket-keeper position when fielding.

Wicket keeping gloves along with the inner gloves Wicket keeping gloves along with the inner gloves.jpg
Wicket keeping gloves along with the inner gloves
A pair of wicket-keeping gloves. The webbing which helps the keeper to catch the ball can be seen between the thumb and index fingers. Wicket-Keeping Gloves.jpg
A pair of wicket-keeping gloves. The webbing which helps the keeper to catch the ball can be seen between the thumb and index fingers.

Law 27.2, which deals with the specifications for wicketkeepers' gloves, states that:

Substitutes

Substitutes were previously not allowed to keep wicket, but this restriction was lifted in the 2017 edition of the Laws of Cricket.

This rule was sometimes suspended, by agreement with the captain of the batting side. For example, during the England–New Zealand Test match at Lord's in 1986, England's specialist keeper, Bruce French, was injured while batting during England's first innings. England then used four keepers in New Zealand's first innings: Bill Athey kept for the first two overs; 45-year-old veteran Bob Taylor was pulled out of the sponsor's tent to keep for overs 3 to 76; Bobby Parks, the Hampshire keeper, was called up for overs 77 to 140; and Bruce French kept wicket for the final ball of the innings. [4]

Arthur Jones was the first substitute to keep wicket in a Test match, when he did so against Australia at The Oval in 1905. [5] Virat Kohli once happened to substitute MS Dhoni, as the latter had to attend for his nature's call. This incident happened in 2015 during India vs Bangladesh ODI match. [6]

Playing without a wicket-keeper

There is no rule stating a team must play with a wicket-keeper. [7] On 5 June 2015 during a T20 Blast game between the Worcestershire Rapids and the Northamptonshire Steelbacks, Worcestershire chose not to play a wicket-keeper in the 16th over of the match. [8] Their keeper, Ben Cox, became an extra fielder at fly slip while spinner Moeen Ali bowled. [8] The umpires consulted with each other and agreed that there was nothing in the Laws to prevent it from happening. [9]

Leading male international wicket-keepers

Test

The following are the top 10 wicket-keepers by total dismissals in Test cricket. [10]

Leading Test match wicket-keepers by dismissals1
RankNameCountryMatches Caught Stumped Total dismissals
1 Mark Boucher Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 14753223555
2 Adam Gilchrist Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 9637937416
3 Ian Healy Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 11936629395
4 Rod Marsh Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 9634312355
5 MS Dhoni Flag of India.svg  India 9025638294
6 Brad Haddin Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 662628270
Jeff Dujon WestIndiesCricketFlagPre1999.svg  West Indies 812655270
8 Alan Knott Flag of England.svg  England 9525019269
9 BJ Watling Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 752578265
10 Matt Prior Flag of England.svg  England 7924313256
Statistics are correct as of 11 July 2024
  • Bold indicates current player
  • Matches is the total number of Tests played, which is not necessarily the number of matches keeping wicket.
  • Some of the players listed have additional catches in games they have played as a normal fielder.

ODI

The following are the top wicket-keepers by total dismissals in one day cricket. [11]

Leading one-day wicket-keepers by dismissals
RankNameCountryMatches Caught Stumped Total dismissals
1 Kumar Sangakkara Flag of Sri Lanka.svg  Sri Lanka 40438399482
2 Adam Gilchrist Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 28741755472
3 MS Dhoni Flag of India.svg  India 350321123444
4 Mark Boucher Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 29540322424
5 Mushfiqur Rahim Flag of Bangladesh.svg  Bangladesh 27123756293
6 Moin Khan Flag of Pakistan.svg  Pakistan 21921473287
7 Jos Buttler Flag of England.svg  England 18122137258
8 Brendon McCullum Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 26022715242
9 Ian Healy Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 16819439233
10 Quinton de Kock Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 15520917226

Statistics are correct as of 11 July 2024

  • Bold indicates current player
  • Matches is the total number of ODIs played, which is not necessarily the number of matches keeping wicket.
  • A number of the players listed have additional catches in games they have played as a normal fielder.

T20I

The following are the top 10 wicket-keepers by total dismissals in Twenty20 International cricket. [12]

Leading T20I wicket-keepers by dismissals
RankNameCountryMatches Caught Stumped Total dismissals
1 Quinton de Kock Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 928418102
2 MS Dhoni Flag of India.svg  India 98573491
3 Irfan Karim Flag of Kenya.svg  Kenya 58592483
4 Jos Buttler Flag of England.svg  England 124671380
5 Matthew Wade Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 9258664
6 Denesh Ramdin WestIndiesCricketFlagPre1999.svg  West Indies 71432063
7 Mushfiqur Rahim Flag of Bangladesh.svg  Bangladesh 102323062
8 Mohammad Shahzad Flag of Afghanistan (2013-2021).svg  Afghanistan 73332861
9 Kamran Akmal Flag of Pakistan.svg  Pakistan 58283260
10 Scott Edwards Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands 6453760

Statistics are correct as of 10 July 2024

  • Bold indicates current player
  • Matches is the total number of T20Is played, which is not necessarily the number of matches keeping wicket.
  • A number of the players listed have additional catches in games they have played as a normal fielder.

See also

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

The Laws of Cricket is a code that specifies the rules of the game of cricket worldwide. The earliest known code was drafted in 1744. Since 1788, the code has been owned and maintained by the private Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in Lord's Cricket Ground, London. There are currently 42 Laws, which describe all aspects of how the game is to be played. MCC has re-coded the Laws six times, each with interim revisions that produce more than one edition. The most recent code, the seventh, was released in October 2017; its 3rd edition came into force on 1 October 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glossary of cricket terms</span>

This is a general glossary of the terminology used in the sport of cricket. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics. Certain aspects of cricket terminology are explained in more detail in cricket statistics and the naming of fielding positions is explained at fielding (cricket).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dismissal (cricket)</span> Cricket terminology

In cricket, a dismissal occurs when a batter's innings is brought to an end by the opposing team. Other terms used are the batter being out, the batting side losing a wicket, and the fielding side taking a wicket. The ball becomes dead, and the dismissed batter must leave the field of play for the rest of their team's innings, to be replaced by a team-mate. A team's innings ends if ten of the eleven team members are dismissed. Players bat in pairs so, when only one batter remains who can be not out, it is not possible for the team to bat any longer. This is known as dismissing or bowling out the batting team, who are said to be all out.

Obstructing the field is one of the ten methods of dismissing a batsman in the sport of cricket. Either batsman can be given out if he wilfully attempts to obstruct or distract the fielding side by word or action. It is Law 37 of the Laws of cricket, and is a rare way for a batsman to be dismissed; in the history of cricket, there has been only two instances in Test matches, nine in One Day International (ODI) matches, and six in Twenty20 International matches. There have also been seven instances in Test cricket, and two in ODIs, where a batsman has been dismissed handled the ball, a mode of dismissal now folded into obstructing the field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Run out</span> Method of dismissal in cricket

Run out is a method of dismissal in cricket, governed by Law 38 of the laws of cricket. A run out usually occurs when the batters are attempting to run between the wickets and the fielding team succeed in getting the ball to one of the wickets before a batter has crossed the crease line near the wicket. If the batter is judged run out, the run does not count and the bowler does not get credit for the wicket.

Rodney William Marsh was an Australian professional cricketer who played as a wicketkeeper for the Australian national team. He was a part of the Australian squad which finished as runners-up at the 1975 Cricket World Cup.

In cricket, the batting order is the sequence in which batters play through their team's innings, there always being two batters taking part at any one time. All eleven players in a team are required to bat if the innings is completed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Tallon</span> Australian cricketer (1916–1984)

Donald Tallon was an Australian cricketer who played 21 Test matches as a wicket-keeper between 1946 and 1953. He was widely regarded by his contemporaries as Australia's finest ever wicket-keeper and one of the best in Test history, with an understated style, an ability to anticipate the flight, length and spin of the ball and an efficient stumping technique. Tallon toured England as part of Don Bradman's Invincibles of 1948 and was recognised as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1949 for his performances during that season. During his Test career, Tallon made 58 dismissals comprising 50 catches and 8 stumpings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stumped</span> Method of dismissal in cricket

Stumped is a method of dismissing a batter in cricket, in which the wicket-keeper puts down the striker's wicket while the striker is out of their ground. It is governed by Law 39 of the Laws of Cricket.

The Indian cricket team began a tour of Australia in December 2007, playing the 4 match Test series for the Border Gavaskar Trophy, followed by a single Twenty20 match on 1 February 2008. They also participated in the Commonwealth Bank tri-series against Australia and Sri Lanka from 3 February to 4 March.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alyssa Healy</span> Australian cricketer (born 1990)

Alyssa Jean Healy is an Australian cricketer who plays for and captains the Australian women's national team. She also plays for New South Wales in domestic cricket, as well as the Sydney Sixers in the WBBL and captains the UP Warriorz in Women's Premier League in India. She made her international debut in February 2010.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Law 27 – The wicket-keeper". MCC. Archived from the original on 1 October 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
  2. The Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket, Oxford, Melbourne, 1996, p. 100.
  3. "Godfrey Evans". ESPNcricinfo. Archived from the original on 16 October 2014. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  4. "England v New Zealand 1986". ESPNcricinfo. Archived from the original on 20 May 2012.
  5. "The limpet". ESPNcricinfo. 29 July 2008. Archived from the original on 18 August 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  6. "When Kohli Replaced Dhoni as Wicketkeeper for One Over". www.news18.com. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
  7. "NatWest T20 Blast video: Worcestershire wicketkeeper Daryl Mitchell moves to outfield". Fox Sports. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  8. 1 2 "English county side creates controversy by having no wicket-keeper behind the stumps". sportskeeda. Archived from the original on 8 June 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  9. "Worcestershire ditch keeper as Dhoni gives idea for controversial ploy". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  10. "Wicketkeeping Records most Test Match dismissals in a career". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  11. "Wicketkeeping Records most ODI dismissals in a career". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  12. "Wicketkeeping Records most T20I Match dismissals in a career". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 23 September 2019.