In cricket, fielding is as essential as bowling and batting. Dropped catches can sometimes cost an entire match or a tournament. Catching a ball requires attention, calmness and experience. When matches are going on under pressure, there is a higher possibility the player might drop a catch out of tension.
Catching the ball in all situations will not necessarily lead the team to victory in the game. It all depends on the situation of the match. So, let’s try to cover up some of the incidents when our superhuman cricket players dropped catches in test cricket.
Most Dropped Catches In Test Cricket
Umar Gul, the former Pakistani bowling all-rounder, marks his name in the record of missing more catches than collecting them. Umar Gul, the greatest bowler of his time, had the weakest catching record. In the T20 World Championship 2007 and 2009, Gul played a significant role and topped the list of taking wickets of the opponent players. But he is still remembered for the 14 dropped catches in test cricket, but he managed to catch 11. In a total of 47 test matches, Umar Gul bagged 163 wickets.
List Of Players Who Dropped The Most Catches In Test And ODI Cricket?
Next, moving on to the list of the players who dropped the most catches in international cricket matches are as follows:
- Mushfiqur Rahim, who is a former captain and vice-captain of the Bangladesh cricket team, has ten dropped catches in test cricket consecutively. The dropped catches include some of the essential misses, as well. But Mushi managed to get the next 13 catches. Mushi is the most successful captain, with 150 international victories. He is well versed not only as a batsman but also as a wicketkeeper. He made 200 catches in 233 ODI matches played.
- Kevin Pietersen, who played for the England cricket team from 2005 to 2014. He was one of the England team’s best batsmen and fast bowlers during his period. But he had a brief time where his catching record was terrible. Kevin entered the test format matches with good catching capability, but he was a bit less fortunate than where he dropped catches in test cricket. Kevin dropped seven catches continuously, delivered to him, but caught the next sixteen ones vigorously.
Who Dropped The Most Catches In T20?
Twenty20 is the shortest format of cricket. Every run, ball, catch, missed catch, stopping of fours, sixes, etc. everything is essential for winning the match. Just as centuries, the fifties, wickets, etc., mistakes will also be counted sharply.
The most famous format of T20 is IPL tournaments. In the IPL, our Indian team skipper, Virat Kohli, holds the top record for dropping catches in the IPL. In the last six years of the tournament, Virat has dropped a total of 15 catches. Does this sound right to you? Do you believe this? We are talking about the batting sensation here.
He is not only the finest fielder but also the fittest athlete worldwide. When you give a bat to him, you can see him performing excellently for his team. Maybe, we should stop exaggerating a bit about missed catches and say it as a little jinx spelt up on him to wash away the evil eye.
And then, there is our left-arm bowler, Ravindra Jadeja, who follows Virat on the list by taking up the second position, with 14 dropped catches. I can hear you saying, ‘uh-oh!’ Is it for real? Yeah, it is more accurate than fiction. Jadeja is an all-rounder player with the most refined fielding skills, just as our legendary player, Yuvraj Sing. Maybe, Jadeja doesn’t like yellow on him.
Who Dropped The Most Catches In Single Innings?
If you are talking, the team who missed the most catches in a match is India; when India matched up against England in 2006, the Indian team missed 12 catches against England.
If we base our concept on single innings, the number of dropped catches is nine. This happened two times in cricket history.
- In 2005, Pakistan faced off against England in the England tour of Pakistan 2005/2006. In an innings, Pakistan managed to drop nine catches; this is the most number of dropped catches in test cricket in a single inning.
- In 2011, when Bangladesh competed against Pakistan in the Pakistan tour of Bangladesh 2011/12, Bangladesh dropped nine catches in a single inning.
Who Dropped The Most Catches On The Indian Team?
Our wicket keeper-batsman, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, has missed the most catches. I mean, he missed 18% of the catches delivered to him. Our former excellent captain has 66 dropped catches in Test, ODI and t20 format matches. Dhoni defended himself by saying that wicket keepers should cope with the high percentage of spin bowling, which was their biggest challenge.
Another Indian team batsman missed 37 percent of catches offered to him. Our former hard hitter batsman, Virender Sehwag, has 68 dropped catches in test cricket, ODI and t20 format matches.
Top 3 Worst Dropped Catches In Cricket History
Let’s talk about the worst dropped catches in test cricket and this article’s ODI and T20 format matches.
- In 2005, England competed against Australia in a Test series. Shane Warne, the former Australian cricketer, topped the series with 249 runs and 40 wickets in his hands. But in that test match, when Kevin Pietersen played, Shane dropped the catch in test cricket. Shane missed the opportunity to out him, and Pietersen took advantage of it and hit two sixes in the next over, which helped in score his maiden Test century.
- In 1990, when England faced off against India, Sanjeev Sharma, the former Indian player, had the chance to stop Graham Gooch when he was just at 36 runs. But at the moment of missing his straightforward catch, Gooch took advantage of it and went ahead and scored 333 runs.
- In 1999, South Africa matched up against the Australian team in Headingley. Steve Waugh from the Australian team missed the chance to take the South African team’s wicket of Herschel’s Gibbs. Then Gibbs scored 101 runs out of 134 balls.
Conclusion
There are so many dropped catches in test cricket, ODI cricket and t20 cricket, which sometimes makes the team not gain their victory. So, playing with full attention always helps the team to take their desired and deserved victory.
