Indian Wicket Keepers

Indian Wicket Keeper – A wicket-keeper plays a crucial role for the team in Cricket. He is the one who needs to be on his toes all the time while fielding. Keeping wickets for a side isn’t really a piece of cake. You can’t afford to make a lot of mistakes while standing behind the wickets.

A wicket-keeper also actively performs the role of encouraging the players to stay motivated during the course of the game. India have been blessed with several wicket-keepers in their cricketing history. India, however, lacked a wicket-keeper who was also an aggressive batsman until MS Dhoni came to the fore.

In MS Dhoni, India found a gem of a cricketer and for a decade the team didn’t have to worry about looking for a solid wicket-keeping option. On that note, here’s a look at India’s top five wicket-keepers in their cricketing history:

1. MS Dhoni

As far as India’s greatest wicket-keeping batsman is concerned, MS Dhoni’s name has to be at the top. The former Indian skipper played 535 games as a wicket-keeper for India. He made 823 dismissals, which includes 631 catches and 192 stumpings.

He is not only India’s great wicket-keeper but also the greatest skipper in Indian cricket history. MS Dhoni is the only captaincy to have won all three ICC trophies, namely, ICC World Cup 2011, ICC T20 World Cup 2007 and ICC 2013 Champions Trophy.

2. Nayan Mongia

Nayan Mongia is India’s second-best wicket-keeper in their cricketing history. In 184 games, he affected 261 dismissals, including 209 catches and 52 stumpings. He scored 1272 and 1442 runs in Tests and ODI respectively in his international cricket career.

3. Syed Kirmani

Former Indian cricketer, Syed Kirmani was counted amongst India’s finest wicket-keepers. He was awarded as the best wicket-keeper in the 1983 World Cup. In 137 matches, he affected 234 dismissals, which include 187 catches and 47 stumpings.

4. Kiran More

Former Indian wicket-keeper, Kiran More represented India from 1984 to 1993 in 49 Tests and 94 ODIs. In his illustrious career, he affected 220 dismissals, including 173 catches and 47 stumpings. More has scored 1285 runs in Tests at an average of 25.7. In ODIs, he has 563 runs to his name at an average of 13.

5. Wriddhiman Saha

The Indian wicket-keeper, Wriddhiman Saha is currently the best as far as keeping wickets is concerned. He is known for his safest hands behind the wickets. Saha is, currently, an active Indian wicket-keeper. He has played 38 Tests and 9 ODIs so far for team India. He has scored 1251 runs in 38 Tests at an average of 29. So far, he has affected 121 dismissals, including 109 catches and 12 stumpings.

Indian Wicket Keepers List

List of wicketkeepers of India in Test Cricket

No.	Player	Test career	Tests	Catches	Stumpings	Total dismissals
1	Janardan Navle	1932–1933	2	1	0	1
2	Dilawar Hussain	1934–1936	3	6	1	7
3	Dattaram Hindlekar	1936–1946	4	3	0	3
4	Khershed Meherhomji	1936	1	1	0	1
5	Jenni Irani	1947	2	2	1	3
6	Khokhan Sen	1948–1952	14	20	11	31
7	Nana Joshi	1951–1960	12	18	9	27
8	Madhav Mantri	1951–1952	3	6	1	7
9	Vijay Rajindernath	1952	1	0	4	4
10	Ebrahim Maka	1952–1953	2	2	1	3
11	Vijay Manjrekar	1953	1	0	1	1
12	Naren Tamhane	1955–1961	21	35	16	51
13	Chandrakant Patankar	1955–1956	1	3	1	4
14	Budhi Kunderan	1960–1967	15	21	7	28
15	Farokh Engineer	1961–1975	46	66	16	82
16	Prince Indrajitsinhji	1964–1969	4	6	3	9
17	Pochiah Krishnamurthy	1971	5	7	1	8
18	Syed Kirmani	1976–1986	88	160	38	198
19	Bharath Reddy	1979	4	9	2	11
20	Sadanand Viswanath	1985	3	11	0	11
21	Kiran More	1986–1993	49	110	20	130
22	Chandrakant Pandit	1986–1992	3	11	2	13
23	Vijay Yadav	1993	1	1	2	3
24	Nayan Mongia	1994–2001	44	99	8	107
25	Mannava Prasad	1999–2000	6	15	0	15
26	Saba Karim	2000	1	1	0	1
27	Vijay Dahiya	2000	2	6	0	6
28	Sameer Dighe	2001	6	12	2	14
29	Deep Dasgupta	2001–2002	8	13	0	13
30	Ajay Ratra	2002	6	11	2	13
31	Parthiv Patel	2002–2018	25	62	10	72
32	Dinesh Karthik	2004–2018	19	51	6	57
33	Mahendra Singh Dhoni	2005–2014	90	256	38	294
34	Wriddhiman Saha	2012–present	38	92	11	103
35	Naman Ojha	2015	1	4	1	5
36	Rishabh Pant	2018–present	20	75	7	82

Here’s a list of India ODI wicketkeeper

No.	Player	Span	ODIs	Catches	Stumpings	Total
1	Farokh Engineer	1974–1975	5	3	1	4
2	Syed Kirmani	1976–1986	49	27	9	36
3	Pochiah Krishnamurthy	1976	1	3	1	2
4	Bharath Reddy	1978–1981	3	2	0	2
5	Surinder Khanna	1979–1984	10	4	4	8
6	Kiran More	1984–1993	94	63	27	90
7	Sadanand Viswanath	1984–1988	22	17	7	24
8	Chandrakant Pandit	1986–1992	33	15	15	30
9	Vijay Yadav	1992–1994	19	12	7	19
10	Nayan Mongia	1994–2000	140	110	44	154
11	Saba Karim	1997–2000	34	27	3	30
12	Mannava Prasad	1998–1999	17	14	7	21
13	Rahul Dravid	1999–2004	73	71	13	84
14	Sameer Dighe	2000–2001	23	19	5	24
15	Vijay Dahiya	2000–2001	19	19	5	24
16	Deep Dasgupta	2001	5	3	1	4
17	Ajay Ratra	2002	11	11	5	16
18	Parthiv Patel	2003–2012	27	30	9	39
19	Dinesh Karthik	2004–2019	26	34	7	41
20	Mahendra Singh Dhoni	2004–2019	350	321	123	444
21	Wriddhiman Saha	2010–2014	9	17	1	18
22	Robin Uthappa	2014–2015	5	4	2	6
23	Rishabh Pant	2019–2020	9	8	1	9
24	K. L. Rahul	2020–present	5	5	2	7