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Adam Gilchrist is Australia’s most successful Test wicketkeeper, but his suggestion the national selectors must pick the form keeper for the Ashes is a mind-blower.
Had selectors Trevor Hohns, Andrew Hilditch and Allan Border trod the same suggested path in 1999, Ian Healy would have extended his career behind the stumps.
Back then, Gilchrist was a crack batsman who could keep, not as well as Healy, but sufficiently well for the selectors to take a punt. It was a stroke of genius, as Gilchrist became the greatest batsman-keeper the grand old game has ever seen.
The emphasis is on batsman-keeper, not keeper-batsman.
Among the top five keeper career dismissals, four are genuine keepers who could bat, with Gilchrist the only batsman-keeper.
South African Mark Boucher holds the world record, with 555 dismissals from 147 Tests, made up of 532 catches and 23 stumpings.
Gilchrist is next, with 416 dismissals from 96 Tests – 379 catches, and 37 stumpings.
Healy had 395 from 119 Tests, including 366 catches and 39 stumpings.
Fourth is Rodney Marsh, also from 96 Tests, with 355 from 343 catches and 12 stumpings.
MS Dhoni rounds out the list, with 294 dismissals from 90 Tests – 256 catches and 38 stumpings.
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In the process Gilchrist rewrote the textbook on batsmen-keepers to a height nobody has been able to match, and every country since has been searching for their own ‘Gilly’.
Predictably, Gilchrist tops the batting stats among these five keepers, with 5570 runs at 47.60, including 17 Test tons, and 26 half-centuries.
On his day, he was most of the most devastating batsman the game has ever seen, never better shown than his highest Test score of 204* against South Africa in Johannesburg in 2002, which included 19 fours and eight maximums – a healthy 124 runs without leaving his crease.
The best way to do Ashes battle is to dump Matthew Wade, and reinstate Peter Nevill for the Ashes series. Gilchrist himself said New South Welshman Nevill was hard done by when he was dropped last year.
“I think Nevill was a bit harshly treated when they made the wholesale changes last summer,” was how Gilchrist summed up the scene.
“I didn’t think he was missing anything with the gloves really.
“And he got a 60-odd the game before. He was probably the victim of a failing top order.”
But you can see why the selectors plumped for Wade at the time who was recognised as the superior batsman of the two, despite being the inferior gloveman.
They were obviously looking for another Adam Gilchrist, but the punt has fallen way short.
Wade has made one Test half-century in his last 19 visits to the crease, his tenure must be terminated.
The same can be said for England’s Chris Woakes, who has drawn a red cross on his forehead by suggesting Australia has a fragile attack.
As for Woakes, whatever possessed him to bait the likes of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, and Josh Hazlewood, by essentially calling them fragile?
“Apart from [Josh] Hazlewood, they haven’t got a guy who can sit in and hold positions,” Woakes said.
“[Pat] Cummins has played five Test matches in his whole career. He’s never played a Test match in Australia. They’re putting pressure on one of their own before he’s even started his home career.”
Woakes will see how fragile the attack is when the red pill is either whistling past or hitting his helmet at 150 clicks.
The Englishman is in for a painful summer. But the pain will be worse and deeper when he boards the plane home, minus the Ashes.