Alex Carey’s records in the Brisbane Test

We now resume regular programming. Australia won at Brisbane, and England lost the first Test of an Ashes series. And “Goat” Lyon crossed 400 wickets. But it was the debutant wicket-keeper Alex Carey who wrote his name into the record books.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/player/alex-carey-326434

Here are the best innings fielding figures for those making their Test debut:

Carey was one of the few to make 5 dismissals in an innings on debut. Yajurvindra Singh is the only one to do so as a non-keeper. Also note Rishabh Pant’s 5 dismissals in an innings.

Now for match fielding figures on Test debut:

Here, Carey equaled the record of 8 dismissals in an match on debut, earlier held by HB Taber (Aus) and CMW Read (Eng). However, Carey is the only one with 8 catches, as the other two had 7 catches and 1 stumping.

Yajurvindra Singh also holds the record for the most catches (7) by a non-keeper on debut. Rishabh Pant is one of the keepers with 7 catches on debut.

Test captains compared-fielding

We now look at the fielding figures for Test captains. This includes both keepers and non-keepers.

Most dismissals (35 and above):

Led by Dhoni (211) followed by non-keepers GC Smith (152) and Fleming (132) and current keeper Paine (101)

Fine-tuning:

A Flower and AJ Stewart had captained both as keepers and as non-keepers. Sangakkara and AB de Villiers never captained as a keeper.

Most catches by WK: 187 by Dhoni, almost double the next (97 by Paine).

Most stumpings: 24 by Dhoni, followed by Sherwell (16 from long ago)

Most catches by non-keeper: 152 by GC Smith, 132 by Fleming. The highest for India is 59 by Kohli

Most dismissals in an innings (5 and above):

Rashid Latif and Dhoni have the most dismissals (6).

Among non-keepers, the highest is 5 by VY Richardson, Fleming, GC Smith, Sammy and SPD Smith.

5 is still the world record for catches by a fielder in an innings. It is shared by several others. VY Richardson was the first to achieve this. He is better known as the (maternal) grandfather of the Chappells.

Most dismissals in a match (7 and above):

Here the record is 10 by Sarfaraz Ahmed, who had a relatively short spell as captain.

For non-keepers, it is 7 by Fleming. This was a share in the world record until AM Rahane took 8 catches.

And the most stumpings appear to be 3 by Dhoni in 2010.

Highest dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings, and 0.65):

Here the results are a little surprising: Paine (2.244) followed by Sarfaraz (2.200) and Alexander. Dhoni is next.

Among fielders, the leader is SPD Smith(1.187) followed by DJG Sammy (1.075). Dravid (0.702) has the most for India.

You may also like to see this, which has the same dateline in May 2021.

Wicket-keepers who captained in Tests (Revised in May 2021)

Comparing Indian wicketkeepers

There is a lot of debate about who is better suited to be India’s wicketkeeper. Let us compare the keeping and batting averages for all those who have kept for India.

Test keepers – dismissal rate (min 20 innings fielded):

See the 1st position (Pant) and 6th (Saha).

Now see the batting figures:

Test keepers – batting average (min 20 innings):

Here, coincidentally, Pant is still first and Saha 6th.

Now for ODIs:

ODI keepers – dismissal rate (min 20 innings fielded):

Neither Pant nor Saha have played enough to appear on this table, although Karthik and Dhoni are near the top.

ODI keepers – batting average (min 20 innings):

They don’t appear here either, although the table is headed by Dhoni, Dravid and Karthik.

For T20Is, Dhoni is the only one to have batted and fielded enough.

Coming back to Test fielding figures, the best match figures for all Test players are:

Note that Pant has a share in the world record, while Saha has a share in the runners-up record.

ABD: career statistics highlights-1

By now the media is in overdrive recounting the highlights of his career. I am not trying to repeat that, but concentrating on a few of his more outstanding (or more peculiar) performances.

For an overview the most logical place to go is:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/southafrica/content/player/44936.html

He has a very respectable Test batting average above 50 along with 22 centuries.

The highlight of his Test career was probably not his 278* but what is arguably the best all-round performance by a Test wicket-keeper:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/284278.html

It can be seen that he is the only wicket-keeper to score a century and to make 10 dismissals in an innings. This is made more clear here:

In fact, he shares the record for most dismissals in a Test with Jack Russell:

Note WP Saha in this table. Also that 3 of the 5 instances were in South Africa and that the two best performances were at Johannesburg.

His best in an innings is 6, while the record is 7 shared by Wasim Bari, Bob Taylor, IDS Smith and RD Jacobs.

However, he also had some low lights in Tests-being one of the few to get a “queen pair” – out second ball in each inning. And he is also one of the few to get a pair as a captain. He and tailender BS Bedi are the only captains to get a queen pair.

However, it is in the realm of strike rates in ODI matches that he is in a class by himself. That will be the next post.