Wicket-keeping is one of the most vital and strenuous roles on the cricket field due to its physical and mental demands. Every side wants someone with the safest hands behind the stumps. In cricket's early days, the role of wicket-keepers was primarily to keep wickets but, in the last two decades, however, the role of the wicket-keeper has undergone drastic changes due to the exploits of a few gentlemen who have redefined the very art.
This trend began with the feats of Australia’s Adam Gilchrist, who was one of the most dangerous batsmen for Australia in all forms of the game besides being one of the finest artists behind the stumps. These days every team expects wicket-keepers to perform like specialist batsmen and today, a keeper is picked on the basis of his batting
But not many know that there have been wicket keepers who were asked to remove their pads, either to give their front-line bowlers rest or to break partnerships. Some of them even went on to take wickets but only a few wicket-keepers picked wickets in both Tests and ODIs.
Let us take a look at three such famous wicketkeepers who have a Test and an ODI wicket against their names.
#3 Tatenda Taibu
The highly talented wicketkeeper-batsman from Zimbabwe, Tatenda Taibu, is remembered as the youngest captain in the history of Test cricket. At the age of 20 years and 358 days, Taibu led Zimbabwe against Sri Lanka at Harare in 2004.
Taibu picked the wickets of Upul Chandana and Thilina Kandamby in an ODI match against Srilanka at Harare on 29th April 2004 to record his best ODI figures of 2/42.
Just a week after taking his maiden ODI wicket, Taibu got rid of Sanath Jayasuriya in a Test match on 6th May 2004 to feature in this elite list of wicket-keepers with wickets.
Taibu scored 1546 and 3393 runs representing Zimbabwe in 28 tests and 150 ODIs.
#2 AB de Villiers
AB de Villiers has redefined the game of cricket in many ways. With his 360-degree strokeplay, he has taken the cricketing world by storm.
De Villiers recently shocked the cricketing world by announcing his retirement from international cricket. But he has left behind so many memories to cherish for years. Many know that de Villiers holds the record for scoring the fastest 50, 100 and 150 in ODI cricket.
Apart from those records he has another unique feat to his name as he is one of the three wicketkeepers who have picked ODI and Test wickets.
In the match against West Indies on 9th April 2005, de Villiers picked the wickets of Tino Best and Daren Powell to record his best Test figures of 2/49.
Surprisingly, ABD also picked 7 wickets in ODIs with his 2/15 against Ireland in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 being his best.
#3 Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid's name in this list will surprise many. Everyone knows Rahul Dravid as one of the greatest batsmen to grace the game of cricket. He was exceptional in front of the stumps and he could keep wickets too.
There were a few instances where Dravid made his mark with the ball too. Yes, it was a rare sight in international cricket, and him taking a wicket is not something one would expect.
Back in 1999 when Pakistan was playing a tri-series in India, this man was given the ball and he dismissed none other than the great Saeed Anwar. Later he went on to pick the wickets of Gary Kirsten, Lance Klusner and Shaun Pollock in ODIs.
Dravid took the Test wicket of Ridley Jacobs in the match against West Indies on 10th May 2002 to achieve this rare feat.
Here's the video footage of Dravid taking three of his 4 ODI wickets:
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