Ranking the five best knocks by wicket-keepers
When it comes to cricket, it is mostly about the batsmen scoring runs and helping the team win by a big margin. While the mainstream batsmen are the ones who perform to the fullest, the wicket-keeping batsmen too set an example for themselves, often becoming match-winners on numerous occasions. In the same light, we rank five best innings by some of them.
Budhi Kunderan played a record-breaking innings against England
We start the list with a legendary Indian, Budhi Kunderan, who was in competition with Farokh Engineer. Nonetheless, during the opening Test against England in 1964 in Madras, he was asked to open the innings for the first time, and to everyone's surprise, he hit an escalating 192. The innings was record-breaking as it was the highest by an Indian against England, back then.
The original wicket-keeper batsman turned out to be great opportunist
When it comes to the wicket-keeper batsman as an opener, Adam Gilchrist sets an example apart and was known as the superhero. Furthermore, he was a great opportunist, as it was in 2004 during an ODI against a depleted Zimbabwe, he was extra ruthless. Smashing 172 from 126 balls, it was his highest ODI score, as Australia won by a mammoth margin of 148.
The greatest wicket-keeper batsman did leave his mark
As far as the role of a wicket-keeping batsman is considered, Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara is considered one of the greatest. While his list of great knocks is countless, probably the greatest of all came against South Africa in 2013, as he scored 169 runs from 137 deliveries, with a strike-rate of 123.35. Proteas succumbed to the pressure and were bundled out for 140.
MS Dhoni's terrorizing knock floors Lanka
The great MS Dhoni cannot go without featuring here. And speaking of his knocks, undoubtedly his greatest career knock was early on in his career when he smashed an unbeaten 183 against Lanka in Jaipur, in 2005. Chasing a total of 299, Dhoni batted at number three, ransacking the Lankan bowling attack with 15 fours and 10 sixes, as India won by six wickets.
Dhoni's record-breaking double knock floors Australia as well
India's greatest wicket-keeper batsman also has a record-breaking innings to his name in Tests as well. It was in 2013 in Chennai, when he became the first and only Indian wicket-keeper batsman to score a double century in the format. He brutalized the Australian bowling attack, as he smashed 224 in just 265 deliveries, as India later won the match easily by eight wickets.
