Wicket-keepers to have taken a wicket over the last 40 years

In international cricket’s 137-year history, a wicket-keeper taking his gloves off and bowling has been an extremely rare occurrence. What has been even rarer is the wicket-keeper, then, going on to take a wicket or two.There have been only 26 glovemen to have discharged their wicket-keeping duties and bowled at least an over in the same match across all the three formats of the game. Out of those, only 11 have managed to take a wicket or more. Here are the 6 wicket-keepers to have achieved this unique feat over the last 40 years:

#1 MS Dhoni

MS Dhoni, perhaps, could have been a very useful part-time seam bowler for India had he decided to concentrate a bit more on his bowling. He certainly showed his usefulness when he took his pads off and bowled a couple of overs in a Champions Trophy encounter against West Indies in 2009. With the West Indies in deep trouble at 49/4 after 16 overs on a seaming pitch, Dhoni gave the gloves to Dinesh Karthik and decided to bowl himself. The move paid off immediately as he clean-bowled No.4 batsman Travis Dowlin with a delivery that tailed in and beat Dowlin for pace.

Dhoni would have certainly added to that tally if not for the Decision Review System (DRS). Kevin Pietersen had been adjudged caught behind off the bowling of Dhoni during the Lord’s Test in 2011, but Pietersen was saved by the Decision Review System, thereby denying Dhoni his maiden Test wicket.