The Greatest Wicketkeeper Batsmen of All Time

Where does Matt Prior stand in the list of best wicketkeeper-batsmen in Test history? Our expert sheds light on the top performer’s contributions.

Matt Prior has been a major difference maker in the India-England Test series so far. He’s also the best wicketkeeper batsman in the world right now - that shouldn’t be a debate based on current form. But how does he compare against the greatest of all time?
A first look at the stats suggests he’s up there amongst the top three of all time. Note - these numbers are based on averages of batsmen when they’ve played as wicketkeepers only, not when they’ve played as specialist batsmen.

The last column is runs per innings (RPI), which discounts the impact of not outs. It indicates that Sangakkara fares much better, and even above Prior, because the Sri Lankan batted higher in the order and had fewer not outs than most other keepers in this list. Still, the list shows Prior is pretty darn good, well ahead of the likes of Stewart, McCullum and Knott in terms of batting.

Here’s a closer look at Prior’s big scores, to understand the context in which he scored them.

The last column, ‘other innings top scorers’ indicate the other English batsmen who got runs in the same innings. The rows highlighted above are what I reckon to be Prior’s truly great performances in trying circumstances. The top four scores came on fairly flat tracks where a lot of the batsmen got in the runs. His 103* versus India and 102* versus Pakistan were similar knocks - both came in the second innings with England trying on build on a 170-190 runs lead, but dropping to about 100 for 6. In that context, both innings were vital counterattacking knocks that drove home England’s advantage in the match and ultimately resulted in comfortable victories. His 84* against a potent Pakistani attack at the Oval might be his best innings, and came when England were 94 for 7.

The overall analysis - Prior might be a bit of a flat track bully with his top four scores coming on pitches where England had already gotten major contributions from other batsmen. At the same time, he does have a few truly distinctive knocks that have stood out - innings that guys like Gilchrist and Andy Flower were known for. If he gets a few more big scores, Prior could definitely be in the running for the greatest keeper-batsmen of all time. Right now though, he’s a distant third or fourth at best. One thing is for sure though - he’s been a lot better than MS Dhoni in this series, which has been a big reason why England is 2-0 up in the series.