Is this the greatest era for Wicketkeeper Batsman?

[Prince EWS]

Yeah, Dhoni's probably the best stumper over the last 20 years. He has this knack of timing himself to create stumping opportunities out of plays that would usually not be considered stumping candidates with the other keepers around.

Carlton Baugh leaves him for dead on this front.

 

[benchmark00]

I reckon Wade is an underrated keeper.

 

[benchmark00]

lol.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Carlton Baugh leaves him for dead on this front.

If you don't play for any of the big 3, you don't count.

 

[kyear2]

Carlton Baugh leaves him for dead on this front.

His keeping was quite excellent, shame he couldn't bat and apparently that's the more important skill today.

 

[Red]

Watched Tim Paine keeping live in a Big Bash game at the 'G a few weeks ago. He's very clean, up at the stumps to med/fast bowling.

 

[Maximas]

AWTA = Agree with the above.

Have been waiting god-knows how long to see this, terrible at picking up on what acronyms mean

 

[Athlai]

Looking at the Test teams today, it seems like every team in the world has a wicketkeeper batsman that far exceeds the quality of even 5 years ago. Sri Lanka are taking this to the even more ludicrous level of playing 4 keepers in the same team.

England have Prior, Australia with Haddin, Sri Lanka has half a team of keepers, NZ have Watling, a resurgent Ramdin impresses for WI, Rahim is a gun for Bangers, India have Dhoni, SA have the bloody best batsman in the world in AB. Only Pakistan are somewhat lacking in the Test quality keeper department. Even Zimbabwe could potentially look to give the gloves to Taibu or Taylor to put a Test quality batsman in that position.

If we look at the stats from the modern era, keepers have averaged higher in the 2010s than any previous decade:

10s - 16261 @ 33.66 (Non-Keepers 153136 @ 31.87)
00s - 41705 @ 31.81 (Non-Keepers 417512 @ 32.04)
90s - 25950 @ 27.28 (Non-Keepers 285212 @ 29.66)

If you exclude Pakistan's batting stats from the 2010s it raises to an average of 35.43.

While I don't believe this era has seen the greatest wicketkeeper batsman ever (though you could certainly present a case for AB) the amount of quality present worldwide for that position is impressive.

Has there ever been a greater time with the willow for the men behind the stumps?

No longer need to exclude Pakistan. Safraz current form has raised the overall average to 34.43 for the 2010s.

 

[ohnoitsyou]

More of a backstop than a wicket keeper though

 

[Athlai]

A backstop would make an effort to dive for the ones that go wide tbf.

 

[weldone]

This is surely the greatest era for batting of designated keepers.

Whether this is the greatest era for wicketkeeper batsmen is highly debatable.