5 best oldest wicket-keepers in the history of cricket

Ridley Jacobs
Jacobs keeping against England

#4 Farokh Engineer

Farokh Engineer
Engineer is regarded as one of the best keepers in the history of the game

Widely considered to be India's first great and perhaps the most charismatic wicket-keeper, Farokh Engineer kept with ease to the Indian spin quartet of Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrasekhar and Venkataraghavan. Though the number of matches played back in those days were considerably less, he remained Indian's first choice keeper for a long time from 1961 to 1975.

Following a disastrous series against the mighty West Indies in where India were thrashed 0-5, Engineer lost his place in 1962 for a period of almost three years. He made his comeback against New Zealand and scored a brilliant 90 batting at no. 9.

His lucky break came in the third Test against the West Indies at Chepauk in 1966 when he opened the batting and tore into the famous West Indian bowling attack scoring a brilliant century. Engineer became an instant household name but never got a fixed position in the batting order. He had opened the batting but had also batted at numbers 7, 8 and 9, managing to score over 2500 Test runs.

He played his last Test against the West Indies at Wankhede in 1975 when he was 37. Engineer scored a pair and India lost the match by 201 runs. Things could not have ended in a worse manner for a true Indian legend.

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