Doubling Up - The Wicket Keeper Captains
In the history of Cricket Test Matches, there were 30 players who captained their teams while being the designated wicket keeper. Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa had 5 players carrying out this double duty.
The earliest Captain-WK role was taken up by JM Blackham, who captained Australia for 8 tests while being the Wk. The latest entrant too is an Australian, TD Paine, who took over from Steve Smith last year.
There is no surprise to note that the Wicket Keeper who has captained his team the most is our own MS Dhoni. Dhoni has captained India in 60 Tests, winning 27 of them (6 Away Tests) with a win % of 45%. Mushfiqur Rahim, the Bangladesh keeper has captained in 28 tests with a 25% win.
Ridley Jacobs, the West Indies player has a 100% track record, with his team winning both the tests he captained.
There have been 16 instances (7 different players) of the Captain-WK scoring hundreds. PW Sherwell (South Africa) was the first such player to score a hundred, in 1907. MS Dhoni leads here too with 5 of them. He also has the highest individual score as Wicket Keeper Captain, with his 224 against Australia at Chennai in 2013. Mushfiqur Rahim (4), A Flower (3) are the other notable players in this list.
MS Dhoni leads the runs list as well, he has scored close to 3500 runs as captain. Mushfiqur Rahim and A Flower are the other players who have scored more than 1000 runs.
Ridley Jacobs, though has captained West Indies only in two tests, boasts of a 100% victory rate (both against Bangladesh, btw), and an average of 150.00. A Flower (ZIM) has an average close to 50.
Some further stats on Dhoni.
MS Dhoni has not scored a hundred as Captain-Wk outside India, his highest score is 90 against South Africa at Centurion in 2010.
Dhoni has not won a test against Australia in Australia. As captain in 5 attempts, Dhoni lost 4, drew 1.
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