MS Dhoni played for India for more than a decade and during his stay in the Indian dressing room, not only he gained a lot of influence as the skipper of the Indian cricket team but also as one of the best in business when it comes to wicket-keeping. His stats speak for themselves. Nonetheless, former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif believes that the invincible Dhoni had a lacuna in his armor.
“Dhoni was a batsman-wicketkeeper. Obviously, Dhoni is a very big name. But if I go into stats, his dropping percentage is 21 percent, which is huge, huge,” Latif said on his official YouTube channel.
Just like Dhoni, Latif led an international team while standing behind the wicket, but for a very brief period. Meanwhile when he was asked about his favourite keepers, he named the likes of Adam Gilchrist and Mark Boucher and compared them to Dhoni’s ‘dropping percentage’. Furthermore, he added that such a stat can’t be used in his case as he was done playing by then.
“You can’t use my record because this particular record came into being from 2002 or 2003. We had already played by then. Adam Gilchrist had percentage of only 11, Mark Boucher was very good. Australia’s Tim Paine started well but towards the end dropped a lot of catches,” Latif said.
Latif named Ian Healy as his favorite stumper due to his ability to keep to someone like Shane Warne on subcontinental pitches, revealing his favourite keeper in contemporary times.
“If you look at the best in last 15 years, then I would say Quinton de Kock is superb, has kept in all three formats and batted at the top of the order in white ball cricket,” he added.
Dhoni had superb record as a wicket-keeper which saw him accounting for 294 dismissals as a wicket-keeper in Tests, including 256 catches and 38 stumpings.
In ODIs, wicket-keeper Dhoni has 444 dismissals, including 321 catches and 123 stumpings.
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