Batting Keepers

[Xuhaib]

This is one thing that is grinding my cricket gears though it still not as big a concern as flat pitches or umpiring errors but surely one thing that is effecting the quality of modern cricket.

The wicket keeping standards in modern game is absolute appalling, when we watch test-odi cricket we want the standards to be absolute top notch but you have guys like Akmal & Prior who are not good enough to keep in FC cricket maintaining their places just because they can score some runs. Today Prior dropped an important catch which has proved costly and such incidents has been norm lately especially in matches involving Pakistan & England.

Even if you look across the board no one screams off quality apart from maybe someone like Jayawardena or McCullam the rest while being solid are hardly absolute top draw. My fear is that teams in order to search for their Gilchrist will become so obsessed with a guy who can bat that the keeper's role will be limited to a back stopper.

Just my two cents.

 

[Shri]

Sri Lanka have sorted out this issue for the time being by picking Prasana Jayawardene as a specialist keeper in test matches.

 

[pako007]

i agree Akmal is a mere matrass behind the wickets. but he can bat for sure, he is good against spin and pace. but he wouldn`t make it based only on his batting. but the problem is that we dont have a keeper in pakistan that can replace him at the moment. he scored 158* so they aren`t thinking of replacing him any time now orr then. but Sarfraz Ahmed has a FC averag of 40+ so he would be considered, but i am happy with Akmal in the team.

as for other teams, i don`t like the concept to be frank, it takes away the charm of test cricket, it is reasonable for the one-day form. Haddin is good. Boucher obviously, Prior isn`t a good keeper either. Dhoni isn`t goood drops a lot of catches of spinners.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

It's an unfortunate modern trend that a (very small) number of us have been on about for a while. The young cricket follower - including many on this board - can't even tell a good keeper from a bad one let alone understand the importance of the position.
In England's case Read should never have been dropped, but the situation now is so desparate that they can't even find six Test class batsman to select so will stick with a complete dud like Prior.

 

[Fidel Castro]

My ratings of the current keepers would go something like this :

1. Prasanna Jayawardene (SL)
2. Mark Boucher (SA)
3. Brendon McCullum (NZ)
4. MS Dhoni (Ind)
5. B Haddin (Aus)
6. D Ramdhin (WI)
7. M Prior (Eng)
8. K Akmal (Pak)

 

[Goughy]

My advice to any young talented keeper is learn how to bat.

 

[superkingdave]

Really want to see Davies in this series because he's long been considered the best prospect in England but I haven't really examined his wicket keeping. Not heard bad things about it so hopefullly he's decent. Wonder if anyone can advise what he was like in the Twenty20

 

[steds]

Extremely disappointed that Dire Prior has been mentioned twice in the first 4 posts. He IS NOT a batting keeper. He is a garden gnome with keeping gloves.

 

[Xuhaib]

My ratings of the current keepers would go something like this :

1. Prasanna Jayawardene (SL)
2. Mark Boucher (SA)
3. Brendon McCullum (NZ)
4. MS Dhoni (Ind)
5. B Haddin (Aus)
6. D Ramdhin (WI)
7. M Prior (Eng)
8. K Akmal (Pak)

swap Prior to Akmal. Dhoni, Haddin and Ramdhin are interchangeable.

 

[four_or_six]

I think, like for any all-rounder, you're going to have to give them a decent run because they're unlikely to be excellent at both skills immediately. Obviously you don't want a sub-standard keeper, but equally you need someone (be it a bowler or a keeper) who is capable of batting at number 7. That's why I think someone like Prior should be given a year or two to see how his keeping develops with increased experience, and also hopefully learning to deal with the pressure of everyone picking over every catch and bye.

 

[Xuhaib]

I think, like for any all-rounder, you're going to have to give them a decent run because they're unlikely to be excellent at both skills immediately. Obviously you don't want a sub-standard keeper, but equally you need someone (be it a bowler or a keeper) who is capable of batting at number 7. That's why I think someone like Prior should be given a year or two to see how his keeping develops with increased experience, and also hopefully learning to deal with the pressure of everyone picking over every catch and bye.

Keeping is something natural I feel you might improve on it slightly but I don't think a horrible keeper like Prior can turn top class no matter how much effort he puts in.

 

[superkingdave]

Yeah it's not like he just picked the gloves up last year or something, he's not going to become a decent keeper, hes always going to be ****

 

[Fidel Castro]

swap Prior to Akmal. Dhoni, Haddin and Ramdhin are interchangeable.

Prior and Akmal are virtually at a tie for the direness hotspot. But Akmal's prolific habit of dropping crucial catches, which resulted in an Akmalometer gauging the number of chances he dropped in International cricket (Stopped counting at 20), puts him only slightly ahead (or below) Prior, whose core specialisation is in giving runs by way of byes than drops per se.

Agreed that Dhoni, Ramdhin and Haddin are more or less interchangeable. However Dhoni is slightly ahead not because of his merits, but that Haddin has been mediocre to dire and Ramdhin is inconsistent.

 

[four_or_six]

Keeping is something natural I feel you might improve on it slightly but I don't think a horrible keeper like Prior can turn top class no matter how much effort he puts in.

I don't really know about it enough to say. My experience of keeping is club cricket and just getting on with it. But I think players like Gilchrist, who did start of a decent keeper, have improved a lot over their careers. Prior in particular, I'm not sure about. But there's such pressure on him now, I don't know how much that contributes.

I guess it all depends whether you have a bowling all-rounder in your team. If you have someone who can bat at seven and your keeper can bat eight or below, you have no problem at all. As it is, you have to balance somehow between batting and keeping. For example, Brad Haddin doesn't look like the best keeper ever, but he is a good enough keeper that given his excellent batting they go with him quite happily.

 

[steds]

That's why I think someone like Prior should be given a year or two to see how his keeping develops with increased experience

Because 9 seasons of County Cricket isn't enough time to develop enough experience to improve his wicket keeping. If someone's been doing something professionally for the best part of a decade, I'd expect them to be pretty damn good at it or to be looking for a change of career. Especially when you consider that it's over 3 years since his initial run in the ODI team in Pakistan and India and we've seen what? No improvement whatsoever. That's what.

 

[Shri]

Extremely disappointed that Dire Prior has been mentioned twice in the first 4 posts. He IS NOT a batting keeper. He is a garden gnome with keeping gloves.

 

[four_or_six]

Because 9 seasons of County Cricket isn't enough time to develop enough experience to improve his wicket keeping. If someone's been doing something professionally for the best part of a decade, I'd expect them to be pretty damn good at it or to be looking for a change of career. Especially when you consider that it's over 3 years since his initial run in the ODI team in Pakistan and India and we've seen what? No improvement whatsoever. That's what.

I'm not really trying to make a point about Prior. Just a general one about all all-rounders, including keepers.

 

[Arjun]

We've seen far too many bits-and-pieces players picked to keep wickets during the Gilchrist era. Gilchrist was, still is, and will always be, the genuine wicketkeeper-batsman. Mark Boucher is a distant second, while the other so-called wicketkeeper-batsman don't cut it behind the stumps. We've seen the Indians find a very good wicketkeeper who was quite young (the best in the country were in their 30s) but he was dumped for a bits-and-pieces player. Little Parthiv Patel got so many matches, it made a mockery of Indian Test selections, which had to be earned by performance. His replacement, Karthik, wasn't much better, and was dreadful with the bat and not too great with the gloves. In ODIs, it was significantly worse, with Dravid unfortunately forced to keep wickets well beyond the due date (World Cup final) and he became a liability on the team- and his dreadful wicketkeeping put one of India's best players in poor light. Dhoni, in comparison, is just right, and compared to some other international keepers, a lot better. He's rather safe behind the stumps, without being spectacular, and still a very effective ODI batsman.

The West Indians had Ridley Jacobs, but he was not much of a wicketkeeper to some, often stretching and diving a lot. Then came Courtney Browne, possibly one of the more laughable choices they made, then the much-improved Dinesh Ramdhin, who hasn't been consistent, then Carlton Baugh Jr, totally useless with the bat, who lost his place quick, with Ramdhin coming back.

New Zealand's McCullum is another decent contender, but fitness issues seem to plague him, and there's a concern that he'll stop wicketkeeping and carry on as a batsman. Their new wicketkeeper is quite useful- not so much as a stand-alone batsman, but as one of a lower-order. We are aware of England's struggles with this role, seeing Geraint Jones get so many matches, then Matt Prior, then Tim Ambrose, and they're still struggling. Sangakkara's an error-prone wicketkeeper, and he's a far better batsman when he's outfielding- so he too may not be cut out to be an all-rounder. His Test replacement, Prasanna, can score a few runs, but not alone. We've already seen enough of Akmal to decide he isn't good enough either, but there's no alternative for them. Likewise, Haddin has issues, but he's still reasonably good behind the stumps, and not that much a cause for concern.

 

[tait express123]

My ratings of the current keepers would go something like this :

1. Prasanna Jayawardene (SL)
2. Mark Boucher (SA)
3. MS Dhoni (Ind)
4. Brendon McCullum
5. B Haddin (Aus)
6. D Ramdhin (WI)
7. K Akmal (Pak)

These are my opinions.
8. M Prior (Eng)

 

[inbox24]

What does everyone think of Haddin's keeping? I originally thought he was more of a keeper than a batsman, but looking at him it seem it's the other way around.