All about Test wicketkeepers (Part IV): Rishabh Pant in focus

Rishabh Pant features in the elite list of young stumpers to take eight or more dismissals in a Test. He took 11 catches against Australia in Adelaide in 2018.

India wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant in action in Australia in 2018.

Since the very beginning of cricket, a wicketkeeper’s skill has always been applied behind the wickets. His most important skill is his ability to catch the ball, be it with one hand or both, either from a nearly stationary position standing close to the batsman or affecting a quick dive or sprint, or even a stumping. However, in modern-day cricket, a ’keeper’s job specs are not only to perform well behind the wickets in terms of taking catches, executing stumpings and limiting the number of byes, but to also perform well as a batsman. Therefore, the position is of a specialist or an all-rounder in the playing XI.

In the fourth and final part of this statistical analysis on Test wicketkeepers, we take a look at the youngest and oldest to keep wickets in Test cricket. Some of them have also the distinction of registering centuries and claiming maximum dismissals at a very young or old age. The tables below list all such players.

Teenage Test wicketkeepers on debut

Oldest Test wicketkeepers on debut

Note: Fred Price and Arthur Wood kept wickets for England in successive Test matches, as did Harry Elliott and Harry Smith.

Oldest Test wicketkeepers

Youngest wicketkeepers to make a maiden Test century

Ajay Ratra.

 

Youngest wicketkeeper to make a Test 200

Kumar Sangakkara

 

Oldest wicketkeepers to make a maiden Test century

Oldest wicketkeeper to make a Test 200

Youngest wicketkeepers to take five or more dismissals in a Test innings

Note:

The youngest Test keeper to claim seven dismissals in an innings is Pakistan’s Wasim Bari (30 years, 337 days) against New Zealand at Auckland on February 23, 1979, in a draw.

The oldest Test keeper to claim seven dismissals in an innings is England’s Bob Taylor (38 years, 213 days) against India at Mumbai (Wankhede) on February, 15, 1980, in a winning cause.

Oldest wicketkeepers to claim five or more dismissals in a Test innings

Youngest wicketkeepers to claim eight or more dismissals in a Test match

Oldest wicketkeepers to claim eight or more dismissals in a Test match