Is MS Dhoni not being given enough credit for his wicketkeeping?

Dhoni has the most number of catches and the joint-most number of stumpings for India in Tests

Of all Indian wicketkeepers, across all formats, Dhoni has the most number of dismissals-- 294 in Tests (256 catches, 38 stumpings) and 346 in ODIs (257 catches and 89 stumpings)-- and has played the most number of games. To add to it, he has 60 dismissals in T20I (39 catches and 21stumpings) which is the joint highest by any wicketkeeper, tied with Kamran Akmal.

Dhoni donned the gloves during an era when India were struggling to find wicketkeepers, who could keep well at first, and could contribute at least something with the bat lower down the order. After Nayan Mongia, who was India’s mainstay in terms of wicketkeeping during a major part of the 1990s, departed from the scenes, India tried out 5 keepers within a span of 3 years.

Vijay Dahiya, Samir Dighe, Deep Dasgupta, Ajay Ratra, and Parthiv Patel were men who did the glovework from 2000-2004, but without much success. A 21-year-old Dhoni, who later admitted that he too took up wicketkeeping to make it into his regional side, emerged on the scenes in 2004, as a hard-hitting batsman who could slog even the good balls out of the park, through his sheer power and muscle.

With time and circumstances, Dhoni climbed up the ladder of success with breakthrough performances during his maiden tour of Pakistan in 2006, and the advent of T20 cricket and his batting style suiting the requirements of the newest format, the selectors played the gamble of making him the captain of the Indian side for the inaugural ICC World T20, in 2007.

Dhoni led India to their maiden World T20 title in 2007

Dhoni the captain and the finisher overshadowed Dhoni the keeper

Dhoni repaid their belief in him by leading India to their maiden World T20 victory, and that, in essence, laid the foundation of the best gambler to have captained a cricket team. The rest, as they, is history.

However, during all these years, through success and failure alike, the crowing jewel of the man who has crowned his team with every title that there has been on the offering, has been the skill for which he was initially chosen.

Dhoni, historically, had never been a classical batsman. He was a mauler, who had an impeccable hand-eye coordination and perhaps the best bottom hand in world cricket. Captaincy was bestowed upon him, and with his instinct, something that he trusted more than any other cricketing theory, he led the Indian side to glories unheard of in the past.

But, both these things, while impeccable in their own ways, essentially took the sheen away from what he had been doing for years behind the stumps. Quick hands, lightening fast feet, and absolute accuracy when it came to stumpings have defined Dhoni’s style of wicketkeeping.

The last ball run out against Bangladesh in the ICC World T20 2016, the stumping of Sabbir Rahman in the same game-- wherein he waited for the batsman to lose his balance and lift his feet up and dislodged the bails within a fraction of a second-- as well as the deflecting wide throws coming at him onto the stumps, have been few of the hallmarks of Dhoni’s wicketkeeping.

Dhoni has taken more catches in ODIs (254 from 267 games) than all of his predecessors after Nayan Mongia combined (236 from 224 games).

In Tests too, he is miles ahead, as, since Mongia and before the arrival of Dhoni the Indian keepers took 144 catches from 65 Tests (2.21 catches per Test) as compared to Dhoni’s 256 catches from 90 Tests. (2.84 catches per Test)

He’s got the most stumpings in ODIs (86) for India and is tied with Syed Kirmani (38) when it comes to Test matches.

Dhoni’s guile behind the stumps has made the batsmen skeptical of using their feet against the spinners

The perfect foil for the bowlers

Dhoni, as a keeper, has become a deterrent for the batsmen, and has prevented many of them from using their feet against the Indian spinners, which also the reason why India’s spin bowlers have been able to knit a web around the crease and trap the opposition’s batsmen in it.

Because of the hawk that stands behind the stumps, the likes of Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel, who do not turn the ball much have successfully been able to bowl straight wicket-to-wicket balls, as batsmen have been skeptical in using their feet.

Add to that the turn extracted by Ravichandran Ashwin, and by Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh in the past, and you would know that many of their wickets with sharp turning balls had to be attributed to Dhoni, who stood behind the stumps and latched up almost everything that came his way.

He has stood up to medium pacers like Irfan Pathan, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, and at times to Zaheer Khan, thereby creating doubts in the batsmen’s minds, and has not erred either while making up for bad lines as well as for quick edges.

Dhoni has the 4th highest number of dismissals in ODIs amongst all wicketkeepers, only behind Kumar Sangakkara, Adam Gilchrist, and Mark Boucher. He is on the 5th position in Tests only behind Boucher, Gilchrist, Ian Healy and Rod Marsh.

Dhoni’s legacy, when it comes to batting and captaincy, might be up for debates, but his wicketkeeping would always remain sublime. It’s about time that we realize the fact that Dhoni is a keeper India never had, and would most certainly take a lot of time to find again, and start crediting him for the skill that he truly, and unquestionably, revolutionized.