5 Most Underappreciated Wicket-keeper batsmen ever
The Wicketkeeper's position is the most important part in a cricket ground. Very few players have succeeded in the art of wicketkeeping because it is the hardest position to be in. Especially, in countries like South Africa, Australia and New Zealand where the pitches have an immense amount of pace and bounce, the work of a wicket-keeper gets even more challenging.
And that’s not enough, the Wicket-keepers need to score some heavy runs as well. Wicket-keepers have to be sharp, quick and ready at all periods of time because the ball could come at any moment and in troublesome conditions, dropping a catch could prove very expensive for the team. Wicket-keepers have to be exceptionally agile particularly in the position of stumping.
We are blessed to see some great wicketkeepers over the years and right now we're going to show you the most underappreciated wicket-keeper batsman of all time.
5. Andy Flower
A Zimbabwean batsman who was all about elegance and simplicity than any other batsmen. Andy Flower was a legendary wicket-keeper from a small cricketing nation, Zimbabwe, who proved that the skills that he had were no joke. He was a wicket-keeping specialist, as he got close to 150 catches across both formats and dismissed over 30 players by his stumping in the longer version of the game.
Andy Flower had an astonishing average of 51.57 in the 63 Tests games which he played and scored over 6,000 ODI runs as well. Andy demonstrated a very high level of sportsmanship, much more than any other player of his age. One of the biggest accomplishments of his legendary career was his total of more than 530 runs against India in India way back in 2000, which gives proof of his ability.
Andy Flower was also the captain of his national side. But his personal performances didn't get affected by the pressure of captaincy during that period which is remarkable.