The wicket-keeping-batsman era of World Cricket

When it comes down to ranking the best sport, we have different views & ranks for all the different flavors & the variety of sporting activities we can find in different corners of the world. Cricket seems to find a spot in Top-10 every year because of the ICC World Cups or the T20 extravaganza or maybe the moneyball that happens around via T20 leagues across Australia, India, South Africa, Pakistan, England & many more. If we compare the top-ranked sport in the world, it is necessary to catch-up with the recently hot-topics going around - the MS Dhoni saga & the wicket-keeping standards he has set for the players to fill for the vacant position.

To get to some answers, we will have to go through a story of which I’d like to call the wicket-keeping-batsman era of world cricket because it is not just MS Dhoni, there has been an equal contribution of Kumar Sangakkara and Adam Gilchrist who have changed the perception of being a solid pillar for the batting unit while being a traditional wicket-keeper. Of-course we can never sideline the great wicket-keepers like Ian Healy, Rod Marsh, Brendon McCullum, Jeff Dujon, Mark Boucher, Alec Stewart who built the foundation for younger players to come-in & play for their respective countries & make a mark with their skills, game awareness & tactics to revolutionize the game.

Every playing squad is strategically planned like any other team sport, measuring the pros & cons of each player & their presence. It would be for the overall benefit of the team. Keeping it simple for the people who aren't familiar with this sport, we have 11-players in each team +1 substitute (aka 12th man) with a total squad size of 15 (generally). Watch this Netflix episode in partnership with Vox Media Studios and Vox to get a glimpse of Cricket.

The most critical aspect of a team is the wicket-keeper, who is or I should say - has to be in the game all the time, be it the team batting first he/she has to be prepared for going out & contributing towards scoring runs as the situation demands. When they bowl, he/she has to be focused for every single ball in a match, or runs taken by the opponent because the fielders are going to throw the ball back to the keeper more often than they would throw it to the bowling end.

International Cricket Council (ICC) via a story on best wicket-keepers at ICC Cricket World Cup show that Kumar Sangakkara tops the list, Adam Gilchrist takes the 2nd spot, and Dhoni is the 3rd best in the list (ICC CWC wicket-keepers). In June 2020 they released statistics on the most number of dismissals in ODI’s where we see the top-3 are the same (ICC #CompleteTheSeries Image).

For more detailed information on just the international wicket-keepers from the early 1900s to 2015, DennisDoesCricket has this statistically driven article (Narayana D, 2020) which looks into the performances amongst the peer wicket-keepers from different parts of the world & their performances ahead of the time.

Scroll, has a different statistical view (Magotra A, 2020). It looks at Indian-keepers to check, how the definitions have changed to be the national treasure when it comes to,

• Performing when it is critical to win matches at home or in away series.
• Taking up the captaincy and,
• Most of all - winning the Cricket World Cup after 28-years in 2011 at the Wankhede. 

There are many reasons why everyone in International Cricket is talking about MS Dhoni’s presence in the International circuit since he is not playing cricket for exactly a year now since the ICC CWC 2019 England & Wales. It was MS Dhoni who was back in the discussion, as the topic seems to have more importance than the Indian Cricket Team specifically for fans/super-fans. Head-coach Ravi Shastri did a wonderful job of explaining what is going to happen & what are the plans, which the selectors were reluctant to talk about or rather chose to ignore (The Quint).

In my opinion, MS Dhoni has just raised the bar of wicket-keeping-captain who also is a core No.5 batsman with an exceptional talent of leading the team through difficult phases & also is capable of batting at number 6-7 as a finisher. Wicket-Keeper Batsman like Adam Gilchrist & Kumar Sangakkara as they are strong personalities, have also shared their views about MS Dhoni & his approach towards the sport, which happens to be his approach towards life.

What has this done? First & foremost we think is it has ruined the careers of other players. Did it? Harsha Bhogle's book The Winning Way is about managerial learning from Sports and vice-versa. We can compare the MS Dhoni scenario with a typical 9 to 5 job of the employees, who thrive to be the best version of themselves. What if an employee tends to works harder than any of his/her colleagues & they spend extra time & put in that extra effort on improving their skillsets? Instead of trying to poke others, making both of their lives miserable in the process.

Did that employee ruin the career of their peers? Or, did he/she just improved by working on their skillsets instead of wasting the opportunities that they might get to prove themselves to be capable of revolutionizing the way the work is done? The story is the same with MS Dhoni ‘Mahi‘, isn't it? He has worked harder than anyone else in the cricketing world because he has dedicated more time in improving or improvising his skills. So how did working hard on himself ruined other players career? We can either accept the fact or drop it once & for all so we can start working on our personal development as an athlete & as an individual. 

The facts bring us to the topic which has been part of every news sharing platform, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Sanju Samson & their chances (DeccanChroniclec.com). I agree with Ravi Shastri 100% on the fact that no-one becomes a star over-night. One of the most feared batsmen in the World, Virat Kohli was criticized for his form in England in the 2014-2015 season, but he has been the face of Indian Cricket & World Cricket, achieving milestones every other day. In the article, Ravi Shastri is asking all the upcoming cricketers, to make sacrifices to be the best in the business. It is valid because it has been tried & tested by 'n' number of legends from different sporting dimensions, not just cricket.

Rishab Pant will have to work harder than Dhoni with all his balancing dilemma or anyone else for that matter. The objective should be to improve his performance both as a batsman & as a keeper, because the decision-making system was in-fact sometimes called the Dhoni-Review-System because of his capabilities to analyze things in the same time the cameras would. Frankly, there is no need for anyone to match the level that MS Dhoni has achieved because the actual target should be to go beyond what MS Dhoni has done for Indian Cricket & World Cricket, which many would argue is not possible, but it is possible as it all starts with believing & working hard for what we want.

How about Adam Gilchrist ‘Gilly’? He was supposed to try and match up the expectation set by Ian Healy & Rod Marsh. Over the years Gilly became that benchmark that younger wicket-keepers had to match up-to. People laugh when someone says - the sky is the limit. But for people like Gilly, Sanga or Mahi to go beyond the limits and create a new benchmark, it is not about the limits which they aim instead, it is the process they go through which allows them to learn those little things which many of us choose to ignore, as we are more focused on the outcome/result. In an episode on Breakfast with Champions with Gaurav Kapur, Adam Gilchrist shared an incident where he had to put a squash ball under his gloves to ensure he is in good shape to play a shot with more control. He was also one of the most feared batsmen because he would score runs at a much faster rate coming at no. 6 or 7 in the Australian line-up be it test matches or ODI’s – incident shared by Sourav Ganguly at Breakfast with Champions.

How about Kumar Sangakkara ‘Sanga’ - a player with a lot of grace? The series of discussions initiated by Sky Sports Cricket with Michael Atherton (Part 3) is where Sangakkara talks about Sri Lankan Cricket & the graceful players. If Dhoni was a person to put in extra time & effort to improve their skills, so did Sangakkara when he came from a small town & had to prove his worth, not just to the selectors, but to his teammates as well. Because of it, he went on to Captain the Sri Lankan team following the legacy of some iconic & a strong personality like Arjuna Ranatunga or Mahela Jayawardene. In 2015, ICC CWC in Australia and New Zealand, he became the first player in history to hit four (4) consecutive centuries at the Cricket World Cup (icc-cricket.com). Leading with example, he went to speak about how cricket can be a great example of how a Sri Lankan society should look like in his discussion with Michael Atherton on Sky Sports Cricket (Part 2).

I am a huge admirer of Harsha Bhogle & his views to make the process perfect that he shared in his speech at IIM, which should not get restricted to sports. It is a basic need in-order for any individual to be successful be it sales, marketing, or journalism. Athletes also have to go through multiple phases of transition, which are part of the process from being a regular batsman/bowler to a specialist batsman at no. 4-5 or a death over bowling specialist.

Keepers already have a specialty that is being involved in the game at every given instance, no exceptions. They have to switch on & off whenever a bowler is going back for his run-up in-order to stay focused in the game for a considerably longer time. Simon Taufel calls it in his book finding the gaps - switching the intensity of our approach up & down instead of switching it on & off as Ian Healy during his tenure with Australian Cricket.

Harsha Bhogle at IIM shared his views on how life shows each one of us the littleness of what has been happening around, especially cricket. I was fortunate enough to watch some of the breathtaking performances of these 3-legends without taking anything away from any other wicket-keeper from the past or present, but Gilly, Sanga & Mahi have been people who have been accredited with the tags of strong personalities on & off the field as they take stand for things they believe in, exceptional leaders in sports & in life as well as value for money performers from National & International legends of the Cricket.

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