Wicket-keeping is not a dying art: Dujon

www.espncricinfo.com/west-indies-v-pakis...nt/story/648283.html

"I've played a lot of cricket for Pakistan as a batsman and to be handed

the responsibility of having to also keep wicket is a tough ask,"

Umar Akmal ...

"Everybody had an opinion that to pick a side that can explore opportunities,

we would need a wicketkeeper who is also a full-time batsman,"

Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore said.

I do think it is actually. I mean I can't think of any team that picks keepers primarily based on their keeping skills. If they can bat good and keep OKAY, they'll get the green light. And this has been the case mostly since Gilly came along, obviously.

And sometimes teams just suck at balancing pros vs cons and almost forget how important having a great keeper is. Case in point, Umar Akmal - will ruin him as a batsman and he's a below average keeper at that too.

Wicket keepers are easily dropped when they are failures in batting.

People focus on the runs the wicket keeper scores more than their primary role of keeping wicket.


A wicket keeper that drops catches and misses stumping will cost you more runs than a wicket keeper that doesn't score heavily with the bat.

well said 

Charles just failed ....in both Categories 

It didn't help that they had a part-time wicketkeeper, Charles, in the firing line of Best's misdirected missiles.

Thrice, Charles let a wide delivery fly to the boundary when a better keeper might have stopped it.

The extra batsman in Simmons gave West Indies a chance, but would he have needed to take so much risk in the absence of all those extras?

Well I'd blame the bowlers for that mostly, but yeah - probably not worth it. I'm sure you could squeeze in Ramdin there somewhere? I mean it's not as if he's Chris Martin with the bat or anything. I would say it would really prop up the game with a genuine keeper like him. Bloody hell, I'd even take Thomas at this point.

Pitches these days are more conducive to slower bowlers so a keeper needs to be sharper to the spinners and there is a point that keepers have to score more runs these days but I don't think the actual art of keeping has gone. You think of Gilchrist who kept to Warne and at the same time scored a shed load of runs and maybe you have the blueprint for a modern keeper. Its just an increase in what's expected now.