2013 in review: Top 5 wicket-keepers

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and not reflective of the website as a whole.

It is very difficult to make a choice between Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Brad Haddin for 2013’s best wicket keeper. The other players who make the list of top five wicket keepers of the year are Kumar Sangakkara, AB De Villiers and Brendon McCullum.

Dhoni, De Villiers and McCullum have shown good examples of wicket-keeper-captain combination. All the above mentioned names have experienced both victories and losses in 2013.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni

MS Dhoni

The Indian skipper played 18 One Day Internationals and five Test matches. He has taken 25 catches and has 10 stumped victims. After a very terrible time in Test cricket in 2011 (post World Cup) and 2012, he managed to start 2013 with a victory.

Though India lost the Test series against England at home in 2012, 2-1, his performance in the final Test match along with the vice-captain Virat Kohli, he avoided a loss of 3-1. The sad part was his run-out on 99. The Australians flew to India for a four-match Test series with a lot of confidence after they had white-washed the hosts Down-Under a year back.

Dhoni-led Indian team proved to be too good for the visitors. Dhoni started the series with a bang, scoring an impressive double hundred in the first Test match. Even though the Australians made few changes in every match, they couldn’t avoid the 4-0 loss.

Dhoni even led his young team India to the Champions Trophy victory in England, there by becoming the only captain to win all the major tournaments — 50-50 World Cup, T20 World Cup and Champions Trophy.

Brad Haddin

Brad Haddin

The 36-year old Australian has been arguably the best wicket-keeper of 2013. But since he has had very few appearances for his country, Dhoni automatically takes the first place. Haddin was never the first choice as the wicket-keeper for Australia. He was called every time when Mathew Wade was injured or the team was struggling.

Looking into Winter Ashes which took place in England, Australia had the year’s worst time. But Haddin could proudly stand out and say that he did a very commendable job in England. He was called for the last three Tests in which he took 29 catches, thereby becoming the first wicket-keeper to take 29 dismissals in a single Test match.

Haddin has played a crucial role in the 2013-14 Ashes victory at home. He has been useful with both bat and gloves. He scored 95, 118 and a decent 55 as of now in the ongoing series. And he has already taken 15 catches. If Haddin would have got more chances to play, his numbers would be far ahead of every other wicket-keeper of the world.

AB de Villiers

AB de Villiers

He started the season with a Test and ODI series victory over Pakistan. He was the player of the series scoring 352 and 367 in Tests and ODIs respectively. Then South Africa lost the ODI series in Sri Lanka where de Villiers did not perform to his capability.

South Africa is known by the name of “chokers” and again they justified this name by losing the Champions Trophy semi-final to England. The ongoing series against India at home has been a decent one for de Villiers. He led his team to the ODI series victory by 2-0 against the World No. 1 team. The first Test match in Johannesburg ended in a draw—South Africa required 458 runs to win in two days. AB de Villiers along with Faf du Plesis took their country near to the target when Villiers got out on 103.

There were very few occasions when AB de Villiers did not contribute in South Africa’s victories.

Kumar Sangakkara

Kumar Sangakkara

Sri Lanka hasn’t played a lot of cricket this year. They started the year with series against Bangladesh at home where Sangakkara went on to win the man of the series for scoring 441 runs. He shares the same story as AB de Villiers in the case of Champions Trophy. Sri Lanka too lost in the semi-final.

He was again the player of the series when he scored 372 runs against South Africa in the five-match ODI series.

The ongoing series against Pakistan has not been great for both Sri Lanka and Sangakkara. They have lost the ODI series with one more match remaining.

Brendon McCullum

Brendon McCullum

After the row over captaincy for the national team, McCullum was given the job to lead Test as well as the ODI team. The first series was against South Africa where they lost both the Test matches but won the ODI series by 2-1.

He played a decent role in drawing the three- match Test series against England at home. Then when they flew to England, they managed to win the One Day series but lost the Test series.

McCullum being the best T20 batsman helped the Blackcaps win the one and only T20 match of the series. They took a sweet revenge from the West Indians in the ongoing tour of West Indies in New Zealand for last year’s Test matches defeat. Though the player of highlight in this series was Ross Taylor, McCullum supported him well in leading New Zealand to the series win of 2-1.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and not reflective of the website as a whole.