Cricket trivia richer by two!

India’s Dhruv Jurel (left) celebrates with Rishabh Pant after reaching his half-century during the second day of the second Test against Sri Lanka at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground in Colombo on Monday. PIC/AFP

Wicketkeepers lend themselves to interesting trivia, forever strengthening the beams of the trivia club, of which I am a life member, as it were. India currently have two wicketkeepers in the playing XI - Dhruv Jurel and Rishabh Pant. They have figured together in six Tests, and the second India-Sri Lanka Test was the first time both made 50-plus scores in the same innings. The duo contributed in no small measure to India's 503-9 declared; Jurel making 115 and Pant 63.

Pant has kept in all six Tests they have played together, but there could come a time when Jurel gets the big gloves and Pant plays as a specialist batsman. Already, there are pundits who reckon Jurel is the better 'keeper.

Whenever two wicketkeepers compete for a place, expert views are sought. Sometimes, the men involved are asked too. I asked Farokh Engineer for his thoughts on himself and Budhi Kunderan playing for India at the same time. He said: "Budhi would've ended up playing far more Tests if he was chosen purely as a batsman and the outstanding fielder that he was."

The two played three Tests together - the Kolkata Test against New Zealand in 1964-65 and the Lord's and Birmingham Tests in 1967. Engineer, who made his debut in 1961-62, kept wicket in all three.

Kunderan had started his Test career in 1959-60, replacing Naren Tamhane for the third Test against Richie Benaud's Australians. He told me in an interview that he did not have a pair of gloves fit enough for his debut. Tamhane came to his rescue by lending him a pair. There could hardly have been a more appropriate way for one wicketkeeper to hand over to another.

During the 1966-67 home series against the West Indies, Kunderan was picked for the first two Tests, at Mumbai and Kolkata. Engineer replaced him in the third, at Chennai, and responded with a belligerent 109, including 94 before lunch on the opening day.

Kunderan and Engineer opened the batting from the second innings at Lord's and did so again at Birmingham, where Kunderan also opened the bowling in the first innings. That final Test of the 1967 England series proved to be Kunderan's last for India. Surprisingly, he was left out of the 1967-68 tour of Australia, with KS Indrajitsinhji as Engineer's understudy. Indrajitsinhji, incidentally, had played all three Tests against Australia in 1964-65. He must have been some wicketkeeper to be picked when both Kunderan and Engineer were on the scene. My departed friend Kiran Ashar, the Mumbai wicketkeeper, played alongside Indrajitsinhji at the Associated Cement Companies and spoke highly of his glovework. Ashar told me that Indrajitsinhji was a fine 'keeper who, on his day - and when he was in the groove - was matchless. Ashar spoke from experience. He played as a specialist batsman occasionally while Indrajitsinhji took the position behind the stumps for ACC, a team that also competed in first-class tournaments such as the Moin-ud-Dowla Gold Cup in Hyderabad.

Talking of first-class cricket, did you know eventual champions Mumbai used three wicketkeepers during their 1976-77 season? After a few games in the zonal round, Sharad Hazare was replaced by Subhash Bandiwadekar. When the selectors wanted another change, they turned to Ashar for the semi-final against Tamil Nadu. It was a playing XI recall for Ashar, who had made his Irani Cup debut back in 1968-69.

And there is another little-known nugget. India used three wicketkeepers in five Tests on the 1952-53 tour of the West Indies. PG ‘Nana' Joshi kept in the first two Tests, ES Maka replaced him for the third at Trinidad, and when Maka was injured and unavailable for the fourth, Joshi found a place again only to see Vijay Manjrekar being entrusted with the job for the final Test at Jamaica.

The pattern had appeared even earlier. In the 1951-52 home series, India used three wicketkeepers - Joshi, Madhav Mantri, and P Sen. In later years, Kiran More and Chandrakant Pandit emerged as India's wicketkeeping options. Both figured in the 1986-87 Tied Test against Australia. They also appeared in the playing XI, though not together, on the 1991-92 tour of Australia.

Then came MS Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik. They played in the same XI, including on the 2007 tour of England, where Dhoni kept in all three Tests, and Karthik opened the batting with Wasim Jaffer. Their contribution to India's series win should not be underestimated - it remains a success in England that India have not emulated since.

When Dhoni opted out of the 2008 tour of Sri Lanka, Karthik kept in the first two Tests before Parthiv Patel took over for the third, which Sri Lanka won, sealing the series 2-1. When Karthik first appeared on the international scene in 2004, he looked capable of being around for a long time. Then Dhoni arrived and changed the equation for the Tamil Nadu man. Yet both have gone on to serve Indian cricket across formats for years. Now it is Pant and Jurel even as Indian cricket's cup of wicketkeeping trivia overflows.

mid-day's Deputy Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.