The recent retirement of Adam Gilchrist, after the hard-fought Test series against India, has left a gaping hole in the Aussie batting line-up.

Time will gradually show what a great player he was, but whether he was the greatest wicketkeeper is another matter.

Over his final two seasons, and especially in Tests, Gilchrist's batting faltered. And his keeping also declined (although he was still one of the best around).

'Boucher's leg-side catching of right handers is brilliant'


Kumar Sangakarra, Mark Boucher and MS Dhoni are reckoned to be the best around but which is the best?

A wicketkeeper should be assessed on a 60-40 split between keeping and batting. I am assessing the three great players above on a scale of 1-3 with 1 being the lowest and 3 being the highest.

Sangakarra is definitely the best batsman of the three. He is one of the pillars of Sri Lankan batting, interestingly, in recent times, to give him maximum concentration time at the crease, he has been relieved of his keeping duties in Tests.

When this happens, the statistics show that Sangakarra scores more runs than when he is the keeper. But even when he is the keeper, he still scores well. Kumar gets 3 for his batting skills and 1 for his keeping skills.

Mark Boucher is a better keeper of the two, his leg-side catching of right handers is brilliant. And he keeps well to new bowlers like Albie and Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn. His batting has probably gone down a notch, and he is less inclined to be the one who shores up the lower order. I am giving him 3 for his keeping skills and 1 for batting.

MS Dhoni is the more balanced keeper of the three. His batting has been consistent, though he was not as good in the Tests as in the ODI tri-series in Australia. His keeping has improved and he hardly missed anything in the series. And the vice-captaincy in Test matches and captaincy in the ODIs has not affected his keeping or batting. I give him 2 for both his keeping and batting skills.

For me, Boucher is the best keeper in the world now. A wicket-keeper can be a good batsman, but he has to excel at keeping first.

There is not much to choose between the three but for overall keeping-batting prowess, Boucher gets the nod.