cricket player
International Debutant
Best wicket keeper batsman ever?
The simple answer is no, but probably for Zimbabwe he was.cricket player said:Best wicket keeper batsman ever?
Slats4ever said:haha yeah you can't compare him with Gilchrist. well u can i suppose but nowhere near the same class
Maybe the other Flower brother (Grant) or Heath Streak.marc71178 said:Gilchrist plays amongst a supremely talented line-up.
Flower was basically the only player Zimbabwe could rely on with the bat...
I don't think this stat says anything about their respective capabilities as 'keepers. Gilchrist is 'keeping to McGrath, Warne and co...Flower kept wickets to bowlers of a much lower standard (who didn't create many chances he could hold on to).Slats4ever said:Gilchrist avges 4.2 dismissals per test compared to 2.53 per test from Flower.
Another point with that is Flower would often have to rescue his team from very precarious positions - even if batting at 3 or 4 or 5, he'd come in with very few runs on the board and take the team to a competitive total (at times).shaka said:Flower does bat higher up in the order than Gilchrist and therefore Flower has no base in which to approach his innings. Gilchrist on the other hand comes in at 7 with the score usually above the 250 mark at least.
Actually, many people have this sort of misconceptions....that apparently you can increase your production by simply 'knuckling down' and batting carefully.Often I believe Gilchrist throws his wicket away simply cos Australia is in such an amazing position in most games that if he were to really knuckle down he could an increase his avg heaps more.
Prince EWS said:Batsman - Flower
Keeper - Gilchrist
Keeper/Batsman - Gilchrist
Right on the money..Prince EWS said:Batsman - Flower
Keeper - Gilchrist
Keeper/Batsman - Gilchrist
woah man Gilchrist averages 55 and you are gawking at the fact that he is considered better than Flower. Every stat points to Gilchrist being better. Are you saying someone like Javed Omar is as good as Matthew Hayden simply cos he has to score his runs in heaps harder circumstances. That's basically taking ur argument to the extreme I know.Richard said:How on Earth anyone can possibly assert that Gilchrist is as good as Andy Flower as a batsman is totally beyond me.
For exactly the same reason as I believe Sangakkara a better batsman, I believe Flower the better too.
Gilchrist has easy runs too often - and even when he plays match-turning innings they're nothing-to-lose affairs.
Gilchrist's wicketkeeping, while underrated, is not in the top bracket and while Flower's wicketkeeping certainly suffered from the large workload he often took on there's no doubt he had the talent to be very, very good and when he had a lesser workload he could 'keep very, very well.