A take on Alastair Cook's all-time XI

#3 AB de Villiers and Kumar Sangakkara as wicketkeepers

AB de Villiers standing in slips during a test match

In a Test XI, picking up a good wicketkeeper is imperative since ball tends to do a lot from the pitch during the five days of a Test match. Often, It swings pronouncedly during the first day then it spins prodigiously during the last two days. Wicketkeeping is a specialists job in Test matches, otherwise, a dropped catch or a missed stumping can cost a team heavily, the way it did when Kiran More dropped Graham Gooch early in the inning during a Test match at Lord's in 1990, Gooch went on to score 333.

Although excellent Test batsmen, AB de Villiers and Kumar Sangakkara were not regular keepers for their national Test sides, which is an indication that specialist wicketkeepers were preferred over these two.

Also, the world has seen a lot of good wicketkeepers in the recent past who were good with the bat as well. Picking a part-time keeper in a Test side is never a good decision.