Cricket trivia richer by two!

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 mdash Dhruv Jurel and Rishabh Pant They have figured together in six Tests and the second IndiaSri Lanka Test was the first time both made 50plus scores in the same innings The duo contributed in no small measure to Indiarsquos 5039 declared Jurel making 115 and Pant 63Pant 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 rsquokeeperWhenever 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 ldquoBudhi wouldrsquove ended up playing far more Tests if he was chosen purely as a batsman and the outstanding fielder that he wasrdquoThe two played three Tests together mdash the Kolkata Test against New Zealand in 196465 and the Lordrsquos and Birmingham Tests in 1967 Engineer who made his debut in 196162 kept wicket in all threeKunderan had started his Test career in 195960 replacing Naren Tamhane for the third Test against Richie Benaudrsquos 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 anotherDuring the 196667 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 dayKunderan and Engineer opened the batting from the second innings at Lordrsquos 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 Kunderanrsquos last for India Surprisingly he was left out of the 196768 tour of Australia with KS Indrajitsinhji as Engineerrsquos understudy Indrajitsinhji incidentally had played all three Tests against Australia in 196465 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 rsquokeeper who on his day mdash and when he was in the groove mdash 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 firstclass tournaments such as the MoinudDowla Gold Cup in HyderabadTalking of firstclass cricket did you know eventual champions Mumbai used three wicketkeepers during their 197677 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 semifinal against Tamil Nadu It was a playing XI recall for Ashar who had made his Irani Cup debut back in 196869And there is another littleknown nugget India used three wicketkeepers in five Tests on the 195253 tour of the West Indies PG lsquoNanarsquo 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 JamaicaThe pattern had appeared even earlier In the 195152 home series India used three wicketkeepers mdash Joshi Madhav Mantri and P Sen In later years Kiran More and Chandrakant Pandit emerged as Indiarsquos wicketkeeping options Both figured in the 198687 Tied Test against Australia They also appeared in the playing XI though not together on the 199192 tour of AustraliaThen 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 Indiarsquos series win should not be underestimated mdash it remains a success in England that India have not emulated sinceWhen 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 21 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 cricketrsquos cup of wicketkeeping trivia overflowsmiddayrsquos Deputy Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stanceHe tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper