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Best Wicket Keeper in the World

ranjangyan603

Cricket Spectator
I am eager to discuss about the Best Wicket Keeper in the World, I have read out many articles and blogs on this topic, I have found only one website by which I am fully satisfied. if you guys have any other articles on the same topic, please do let me know. I have also linked that page in this discussion so that everyone can go through it and write their suggestion on the same. Thank you in Advance.
 

TheJediBrah

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What a garbage article. Does nothing but just count number of dismissals which is meaningless when judging a keeper. Half the keepers on that list wouldn't even have been in the top 30 keepers in the world during their careers.
 

Essexboi

Cricket Spectator
I am eager to discuss about the Best Wicket Keeper in the World, I have read out many articles and blogs on this topic, I have found only one website by which I am fully satisfied. if you guys have any other articles on the same topic, please do let me know. I have also linked that page in this discussion so that everyone can go through it and write their suggestion on the same. Thank you in Advance.
Ben Foakes...next question.
 

Jack1

International Debutant
What a garbage article. Does nothing but just count number of dismissals which is meaningless when judging a keeper. Half the keepers on that list wouldn't even have been in the top 30 keepers in the world during their careers.
Think you mean top 3, but yes the article isn’t ideal.

OP, first you need to analyse a keeper by their batting career and stats - including where they batted. After that you will have to judge their keeping against seam and spin for yourself - then weight it up against batting to decide who is best. Articles can’t do that for you and other people can only give opinions.

Anyway, for me Gilchrist was a very good keeper and averaged nearly 50. Someone might come along that’s better at some point, time will tell - but for me he’s the number one keeper. Flower was a better batsman than Gilchrist with the gloves, but like I said Gilchrist was a very good keeper (Flower wasn’t). If you mean current then you’ll have to decide that for yourself - over all formats then I’d consider Quinton de Kock personally, but he’s not miles out ahead and it can be debated

It’s possible this is just about their keeping in hindsight, in which case gets a lot more complicated and a bit subjective without access to really detailed statistics and going through a wicketkeepers career almost ball by ball - then you consider they kept to different bowlers, gets a bit difficult for me to get involved in tbh.
 
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TheJediBrah

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Think you mean top 3, but yes the article isn’t ideal.
No, I meant top 30. IMO domestic cricket was full of specialist keepers better than Boucher, Gilchrist, Haddin and McCullum. Their batting is irrelevant when judging their keeping skills.
 

Jack1

International Debutant
No, I meant top 30. IMO domestic cricket was full of specialist keepers better than Boucher, Gilchrist, Haddin and McCullum. Their batting is irrelevant when judging their keeping skills.
I’m aware of the article as mentioned , but when you someone says wicketkeeper I think of them as a player, he didn’t specify just keeping . If we are talking just about the keeping then gets more complicated and can get subjective. As far as I’m aware there’s no access for advanced data for keepers either to see how many chances they missed compared to caught, including missing stumps vs not and byes caused by errors (byes can also be saved by keepers capable of covering more ground - byes conceded by one keeper with no forced error may not be conceded by another) to try to eliminate subjectiveness as much as possible . Then you have to start trying to subjectively define the difficulty of each chances, bye save etc and the difficulty of keeping to certain bowlers, pitches etc - it gets too ridiculous for me to think about how you can be fair / confident about who’s better unless there’s an obvious gap and it gets less and less as the keeper gets “better”

For all I know there’s a keeper from the 1920s (or whatever) that never missed anything in a reasonable amount of tests and averaged 20 or less with the bat - and these days no one’s picking you in FC if you average that even if you are the best specialist keeper in the world - certainly not in the well recognised FC countries as far as I’m aware
 
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Blenkinsop

State 12th Man
No idea about his stats, but Mohammed Rizwan is visibly a long way above any other international keeper apart from possibly Ben Foakes at the moment.
 

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