The Wicketkeeper in cricket has seen variations over the years. First he was required to be an excellent ball collector to account for variable spin and bounce on test wickets, in the one day game, his batting skill suddenly became more important as a real contributor but as the format has changed to T20s, he is required to keep wickets and field runouts, finish games like Dhoni or provide quickfire starts like Quinton de Kock.
In short, the wicketkeeper of today is no ordinary creation and even as their batting draws more and more prominence, the wicketkeepers are still on the leaderboards for dismissals. With the world cup around the corner, the wicketkeepers will have a substantial role to play. they could be the balancer in the side and as their role becomes all the more important because as they say “catches win you matches”.
Today we look at the top 5 wicketkeepers with the most no. of dismissals.
1. Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Captain Cool leads the rest of the pack and waits for us as we feign surprise. MSD has been the quickest and most secure hands behind the wicket for a long time and is possibly a generational talent for his contributions with the bat and in his captaincy but his true exploits and achievements are actually in the wicketkeeping of the shortest format as he is the clear leader of the pack with 32 dismissals in the ICC T20s. even today, one can remember how he miraculously won India the quarterfinals against Bangladesh where Bangladesh needed 1 run from 3 balls. Having reduced the equation down to 1 run from 1 ball, Dhoni stood behind the stump with one glove off. The batsman missed the last ball, Dhoni collected it and charged towards the stumps and in that 50m dash of the sprint, he dislodged the bails to give India one of its most iconic wins.
2. Kamran Akmal
While it is a surprise he doesn’t have more dismissals despite Pakistan’s famed pace battery it is also almost as surprising that he doesn’t have less due to his remarkably slippery glovework which led him to be a meme during the 2011 World Cup in India. However, he is obviously deserving of all plaudits given to him as he is a clear runner up in dismissals from behind the wicket only narrowly missing out on 30 dismissals.
3. Dinesh Ramdin
Bring up a T20 top performers list and it has to feature at least 1 West Indian. The Caribbean flair is almost as synonymous with this format as is the intensity of their passion for the game. Dinesh Ramdin made quite an impact behind the wickets but was also a handy batter making key contributions to the West Indies 2016 campaign which they managed to put together and win almost completely as an underdog. He has 27 dismissals to his name.
4. Kumar Sangakarra
Perhaps the classiest player on this list, Kumar Sangakarra was perhaps the only player whose silky strokeplay gave as much to his country as his consistent glove work from behind the wicket. He was a big part of the achiever Sri Lankan side of the 2000s and early 2010s comprising a top order with the world’s top batsmen. In the T20 format, Sri Lanka had few of the most potent bowlers who must’ve been hard to keep for considering most batsmen had such a hard time reading them, including the likes of Malinga, Herath and Ajanta Mendis. He still managed to rack up a sizeable 26 dismissals in the shortest format of the game.
5. Mushfiqur Rahim
The only active player still a part of this list, and by virtue of that the only entry with the possibility of some mobility presently, Mushfiqur Rahim is possibly most famous for celebrating a bit too early in the 2016 World T20. He, however, has been a tremendous servant of the nation for Bangladesh and contributed significantly from behind the wicket making 16 dismissals in the World T20s so far.
