Five current batsmen who get bowled out the least
It is considered to be a sign of supreme technique if a batsman is difficult to get out bowled. From among current batsmen, only five batsmen have a percentage of bowled dismissals in their careers less than 10%.
India’s Sanjay Manjrekar never reached the heights of glory that he seemed destined for in his early days, but it is generally agreed that he possessed one of the most technically correct approaches to batting. Manjrekar was dismissed bowled only 4 times out of 55 in his career, during which he got 2043 Test runs at an average of 37.
There is only one batsman in the history of Test cricket whose percentage of bowled dismissals is less than 5% – gutsy Australian batsman Graeme Wood, who fell bowled only 5 times out of the 106 times that he was out. Wood, who was his national team’s saviour in a period when lots of stars were defecting to the World Series, stood up to the fastest bowlers of his time without the use of a helmet, but made sure that he never offered a clean view of his stumps to the bowler.
Five batsmen from current times who rarely go out bowled:
# 1 – Virat Kohli (bowled 5 times, 7.25%)
Among the many theories which can be propped up to prove why Virat Kohli is the best batsman of the present generation, one is that he is impossibly difficult to get out bowled. Even in conditions where the rest of the Indian batsmen struggle in being aware of where their stumps are, Kohli’s straight bat coming down to meet the ball is as inevitable as the rising of the sun.
Kohli has batted in 73 innings till now, scoring 3194 runs at an average of 46.29, a figure which is on its way up, based on recent showings. He has been bowled only 5 times in this duration.
This figure is not very striking unless put in perspective – apart from Manjrekar and Tatenda Taibu, nobody with more than 1000 Test runs has been bowled less number of times. Joe Root, considered by some to be a better batsman than Kohli in the Test format, has been out bowled 15 times.