5 Prolific Fielder/Bowler Combinations for India in Test Cricket History
Cricket is a team sport. Even though there have been instances where a single player has managed to run past the opposition to win the match for his team, the game usually requires partnership between different players and impeccable teamwork to achieve victories.
While the partnership of two batsmen and two bowlers playing in tandem is generally a well known way of winning the matches, there is one more partnership that usually gets unnoticed by the fans - The fielder/bowler combination.
Be it a wicket-keeper or a sweeper standing near the boundary line, the fielder plays as much of a role in a wicket as the bowler does. R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja only manage to take so many wickets because they have the likes of Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane in the slip cordon.
India has seen various such legendary fielder/bowler combinations in the past as well, and, as a tribute to all such pairs, here are the 5 best fielder/bowler combinations for India in Test cricket.
Disclaimer :- This article includes both regular fielders and wicket keepers.
#5 MS Dhoni - Zaheer Khan
There is absolutely no surprise that the pairing of Zaheer Khan and MS Dhoni finds a place in this list. After all, the two played with each other for the better part of their careers and were the numero uno players in their respective departments of bowling and wicket keeping. Since Zak was the master of swing in the early goings, he managed to get a number of players out caught behind with the help of Dhoni.
Zaheer and MS Dhoni played 45 matches together in the 8 year period between 2006 and 2014. In that period, Zaheer managed to take 43 scalps with the help of MS Dhoni, all of which were caught behind. No wonder these two were vital members of the squad that reached the top of Test cricket in that period.