MS Dhoni and Matt Prior: Two outstanding keeper-batsmen in contemporary cricket

On August 9, 2013 Matt Prior became the third Englishman to take 200 Test catches. A few months back, MS Dhoni had made it to the top five in the list of most stumpings. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back at the rise of two wicketkeepers whose careers ran almost parallel to each other.

MS Dhoni (left) and Matt Prior © Getty Images

On August 9, 2013 Matt Prior became the third Englishman to take 200 Test catches. A few months back, MS Dhoni had made it to the top five in the list of most stumpings. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back at the rise of two wicketkeepers whose careers ran almost parallel to each other.
 
Usman Khawaja was left in two minds as Stuart Broad’s ball aimed dangerously close to the stumps at Chester-le-Street. Unable to resist, he groped for it after having decided to leave; the ball took Khawaja’s bottom edge and found the safety of Matt Prior’s gloves — for the 200th time in a Test.
 
He became the 11th wicket-keeper to reach the landmark, and went past Wasim Bari’s tally of 201 in the same innings. 

The top 10 wicket-keepers of all time, thus, are:

 
As is evident from the above table, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the only one ahead of Matt Prior in terms of Test catches — and that too not by much, given that he had made his debut a couple of years before the English wicket-keeper. It is to be noted that in terms of catches per Test, Prior ranks only behind Mark Boucher, Adam Gilchrist, Rodney Marsh, and Jeff Dujon — all of whom, unlike Prior, have kept wickets to at least one all-time champion seamer.
 
For both Prior and Dhoni the top four will probably remain out of reach, but Dujon certainly seems beatable.
 
Where Dhoni triumphs, however, is in the realm of stumpings. Here he ranks fifth — and leads the pack among the current crop. It shouldn’t take him a long time to reach third spot, either.
 

Do note the dominance of Asians on the list. A lead of four stumpings over the exotically-named Hewasandatchige Asiri Prasanna Wishvanath Jayawardene doesn’t seem a lot, but the Sri Lankan seems to have fallen out of favour of the selectors of late in favour of the better batsman Dinesh Chandimal. The next two names on the list belong to Kamran Akmal (plays only sporadically) and Kumar Sangakkara (does not keep wickets any more); the next name belongs to Prior, who is way down at 13.
 
But what about Overall Dismissals?

*Overall Dismissals per match

**Overall Dismissals per innings

Once again, Dujon seems easy for both, but Marsh onwards it seems difficult, and catching up with Boucher or Gilchrist seems highly improbable, unless something drastic happens.
 
Let us turn to batting now. Both Dhoni and Prior have been scoring runs at an astonishing rate: it is amazing how we often forget the role played by these two all-rounders in the sport.
 

MS Dhoni (left) and Matt Prior bring huge value with their batting lower in the order for India and England respectively © Getty Images

The following table shows the top 10 wicket-keepers in terms of runs:
 

 
This does not look too difficult, does it? Also note the averages — Prior (42.31) and Dhoni (39.70) are three and four on the list, behind two iconic batsmen and Andy Flower (53.70) and Adam Gilchrist (47.60). The others are nowhere close — not even Alec Stewart (34.92)!
 
(Abhishek Mukherjee is a cricket historian and Senior Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He generally looks upon life as a journey involving two components – cricket and literature – though not as disjoint elements. A passionate follower of the history of the sport with an insatiable appetite for trivia and anecdotes, he has also a steady love affair with the incredible assortment of numbers that cricket has to offer. He also thinks he can bowl decent leg-breaks in street cricket, and blogs at http://ovshake.blogspot.in. He can be followed on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ovshake42)

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