Top 5 players with the highest catches-per-match ratio in Test cricket

Cricket is a team game, and all the players in the squad have a role to play in the side, even if they don’t make it to the playing eleven. The different skill-sets of the various individual players combine together to form a team, and the same logic goes for the fielding unit.

The different kinds of fielders in a team gel together to form a potent fielding attack for their bowlers. If you have a brilliant bunch of players in the field then even the half chances can be converted into wickets - and that is what can change the momentum of the game.

In Test matches, with spinners bowling on turning tracks, the role of slips, short-leg and silly-point fielders is gigantic for the fate of the team.

On that note, here is the list of the top 5 players with the highest catch per match ratio in Test cricket.

Note: Only players who have taken minimum 100 catches in their Test careers have been considered.

#5 Mahela Jayawardene

Matches – 149; Catches – 205; Ratio – 1.38

Mahela Jayawardene is at the second position in the list of players who have taken most catches in their Test career, after Rahul Dravid.

Jayawardene is widely regarded as one of the greats of modern cricket due to his masterful technique and class. He and long-time teammate and friend Kumar Sangakkara formed a potent middle-order for Sri Lanka.

Jayawardene was also known as one of the safest catchers in world cricket. He took 77 catches off the bowling of Muttiah Muralitharan, making that the most prolific fielder-bowler combination in the history of Test cricket.

Jayawardene scored 2921 Test runs at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, the most by any player on any ground. With 2382 runs at Galle, he also takes the second place in the list of most runs scored at a single venue. He is also the only player to score more than 2000 Test runs on two different grounds.