Stat Attack: Wicket-Keepers Dominating 2016 Like Never Before
Dec 4, 2016 at 12:54 PM
Gone are those days when a wicket-keeper’s role was primarily limited to doing a good job behind the wickets. In the 1980s and 1990s, a wicket-keeper having a batting average of somewhere around the 25s was good to play for any team but the scenario has completely changed now. The likes of Adam Gilchrist, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahendra Singh Dhoni have redefined the role of a wicket-keeper in the team and current wicket-keepers like Jonny Bairstow and Quinton de Kock have made sure to carry on the mantle.
The current year has seen the wicket-keepers averaging 40.79 in Tests which is the highest in a calendar year since 1900.
England wicket-keeper-batsman Bairstow is leading the race for the highest run-getter this year in the longest format of the game. The right-handed batsman has accumulated an impressive 1355 runs in 15 matches with an average of 64.52 and two Tests still left before the year ends, he is bound to add more runs. His run tally is already the highest by a wicket-keeper in a calendar year. The previous record was held by former Zimbabwe batsman Andy Flower, who had scored 1045 runs in 2000.
On the other hand, South Africa’s wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock has also been in brilliant form. With two centuries and four half-centuries, the southpaw has accumulated 589 runs in seven Tests at an impressing average of 65.44. The Proteas gloveman has been in impressive form in the One-Day internationals too, where he has scored 857 runs in 17 innings at an average of 57.
In the history of Test cricket, only eight wicket-keepers have scored 500-plus Test runs in a calendar year at a 60-plus average with Bairstow and de Kock being the two of them. Andy Flower was the first to do this, in 2000 and 2001.
The likes of BJ Watling (554 runs at 42.61), Wriddhiman Saha (366 at 40.66), Shane Dowrich (307 at 38.37) have also impressed with the willow.
Here is a list of the wicket-keepers with 300+ runs in 2016:
Player | Inns | Runs | Average | 100s |
Jonny Bairstow | 25 | 1355 | 64.52 | 3 |
Quinton De Kock | 11 | 589 | 65.44 | 2 |
BJ Watling | 17 | 554 | 42.61 | 1 |
Sarfraz Ahmed | 15 | 426 | 30.42 | 0 |
Wriddhiman Saha | 11 | 366 | 40.66 | 1 |
Shane Dowrich | 10 | 307 | 38.37 | 0 |
Here is a list of highest averages for wicket-keepers in a calendar year since 1900
Year | Tests | Runs | Average | 100s | 50s |
2016 | 42 | 4855 | 40.79 | 9 | 26 |
2013 | 44 | 5204 | 40.03 | 13 | 29 |
2009 | 41 | 4532 | 39.4 | 8 | 25 |
2001 | 55 | 5501 | 38.2 | 12 | 26 |
2014 | 41 | 4426 | 34.57 | 8 | 22 |
2007 | 31 | 2965 | 34.47 | 3 | 23 |
1996 | 28 | 2821 | 34.4 | 6 | 11 |
1972 | 14 | 1232 | 34.22 | 1 | 9 |
1975 | 16 | 1533 | 34.06 | 1 | 13 |
2012 | 42 | 3785 | 33.2 | 5 | 16 |