5 best Australian silly point / short leg fielders of all time

If there is one cricketing nation that has produced gifted cricketers, on a consistent basis, for more than century, then it is Australia and they continue to do so.

They have produced excellent batsmen, outstanding bowlers and also, superb fielders.

Among those fielders, many turned out to be excellent at silly point and short-leg, the two key close-in fielding positions in Test cricket.

Their reflexes, their ability to stay calm in a position in which a fielder is in mortal danger and their ability to pull off stunning catches are some of the qualities that make them great.

Here is a look at 5 of the finest to have fielded at those positions for Australia.

#5 Joe Burns

The right-handed batsman might be out of favour in the Australian Test side at this point in time but if short-leg fielding had been an overwhelming factor in selection, then Joe Burns would probably have never been dropped.

Burns might have been made the short-leg fielder for being new to the side but in the 13 Test matches that he played for Australia, from 2014 to 2016, he displayed a natural affinity to the position.

Burns is agile, he can anticipate the direction of the ball and most importantly, he is fearless when he field at short-leg.

He has only taken 15 catches so far in 13 Tests but there is no doubt that as far as his prowess at short-leg is concerned, Australia have a potential great on their hands.

#4 Peter Handscomb

The 26-year-old middle-order batsman has quietly become one of the mainstays of the Australian batting line-up over the past year or so.

However, Peter Handscomb has also added a different edge to the team's close-in fielding with his presence at short-leg and has quickly become one of the world's best fielders at the position.

His reflexes and quick reaction time make him the fielder that he has become at short-leg. In addition to that, he can concentrate for long, anticipate a batsman's moves and does not duck early if he notices that the batsman is winding up for an attacking shot on the leg side.

He has picked up some absolute blinders in his short career and so far and it is not a stretch to state that Peter Handscomb is already great in the pantheon of superb Australian short-leg fielders.

#3 Justin Langer

He was one of Australia's top batsmen in the first half of the last decade and Justin Langer will go down in history as one of the greatest openers who has ever played for the country.

However, the man who has a 1st-degree black belt in the martial art Zen Do Kai is also one of the greats as far as fielding at short-leg goes and remains one of the greatest short-leg fielders to have ever played for Australia.

He not only had the ability to react quickly and more importantly, those reflexes allowed him to get out of the way of hard hit shots at the last moment.

That extra split second that he got helped Langer make up his mind whether a catch could be taken and it is not a surprise that he pulled of plenty of stunning catches throughout the course of his career.

There is absolutely no doubt that Langer is not only among the greatest short-leg fielders from Australia but among the best across overall.

#2 Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting is among the greatest batsmen to have ever played the game, one of the most successful captains ever and quite clearly one of the best fielders that the game has ever seen.

Ponting was among that rare category of fielders who could field anywhere and when it came to close-in fielding, it was at the silly point that he excelled.

Ponting possessed all the qualities that one would expect from a silly point fielder. He could anticipate how the batsman was going to play, he had stunning reflexes to throw himself in any direction from a standing position and last but certainly not the least by any means, he was a superb one-handed catcher.

The last bit made him a deadly fielder and for years, Ponting's exploits at the silly point made batsmen a bit nervous when Shane Warne used to bowl and during his career, he came up with some absolutely stunning catches.

#1 David Boon

The former Australian opening batsman is nobody's idea of the ideal short-leg fielder and considering David Boon's burly physique, one would think that he would be someone that the captain wanted to hide in the field.

Boon is regarded as not only Australia's greatest short-leg fielder but is included among the best of all time, which includes such names like Eknath Solkar and Garry Sobers.

He was known for his incredible ability to anticipate the direction of the ball and in addition to that, he had amazing reflexes that allowed him to react quickly. In addition to that, Boon could field at both short- leg and silly point.

However, as Boon has himself said about his prowess as a short-leg fielder, he actually wanted to be there and enjoyed the challenges that he faced at the position.

He was particularly well known for striking up a deadly partnership with Shane Warne and took plenty of stunning catches at short-leg and silly point.