Most Test Centuries As Wicket-Keepers For India

Most Test centuries by designated wicketkeepers for India (x.com)Most Test centuries by designated wicketkeepers for India (x.com)

India’s rich history in Test cricket is adorned by some elite wicketkeeper-batters, who have blended their sharp glovework with some impactful batting performances. Some of these crucial innings have even shaped memorable Indian victories in recent memory.

Celebrating the nation’s rich lineage of legendary wicketkeeper-batters and their abilities of occupying long hours at the crease, we take a look at three stumpers who have notched up the highest number of centuries in Test cricket for Team India.

3. Wriddhiman Saha – 3 centuries (54 innings)

Wriddhiman Saha – 3 centuries (54 innings) (x.com)Wriddhiman Saha – 3 centuries (54 innings) (x.com)

Bengal giant Wriddhiman Saha sporadically kept wickets for Team India during MS Dhoni’s playing career, and completely took over the role with utmost grace following the latter’s format retirement in December 2014. In the 40 Tests he played for India between February 2010 and December 2021, Saha pounded three classy centuries, including two in a winning cause.

He registered the first of those hundreds on a tough Gros Islet surface against West Indies in August 2016. Occupying over five hours at the crease, Wriddhiman Saha minted 104 runs from 227 balls and shared a match-defining 213-run stand with fellow centurion Ravichandran Ashwin.

The following year, Saha belted two hundreds in the space of a month against Bangladesh at Hyderabad and against Australia at Ranchi respectively. While the 106* he made in Hyderabad merely piled on Bangladesh’s misery in a one-off Test, his time-biding ton in Ranchi saved India from the blushes against Border-Gavaskar Trophy rivals Australia.

2. MS Dhoni – 6 centuries (144 innings)

MS Dhoni – 6 centuries (144 innings) (x.com)MS Dhoni – 6 centuries (144 innings) (x.com)

Former Indian captain, and arguably one of world’s greatest wicketkeeper-batters, MS Dhoni logged six Test centuries in his elite 90-match career from December 2005 till December 2014. In a month after making his Test debut, the cricketer blasted 148 from just 153 balls at Faisalabad’s Iqbal Stadium against the likes of Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif, Danish Kaneria and Shahid Afridi.

While Dhoni had to wait more than three years to bring up another three-figure score, he ensured to sustain his newfound purple patch by belting three centuries in the space of three months spanning two different home Test series for Team India. In November 2011, the legendary stumper tonked a six-laden 144 against West Indies to chart his fifth Test ton and his second at the Eden Gardens.

MS Dhoni seemed to have reserved his best for the twilight of his career, whipping out his magnum opus score and lone double ton by smearing 224 off 265 balls, most of it while batting with the tail, against Australia under the sweltering heat of Chennai. Remarkably, none of Dhoni’s six Test centuries resulted in an Indian defeat, with four of them resulting in emphatic victories on home conditions.

1. Rishabh Pant – 6 centuries (58 innings)

Rishabh Pant – 6 centuries (58 innings) (x.com)Rishabh Pant – 6 centuries (58 innings) (x.com)

Rishabh Pant, a legend in the making, is well on his way in becoming one of the all-time greats of red-ball cricket. Having made his Test debut at a tender age of 20 on tough English surfaces, Pant’s career instantly took off after he smacked a whirlwind 114 in the final match of the tour to keep India’s chase ambition of 464 runs alive until his stay at the crease.

The unconventional stroke-maker went from strength to strength in his subsequent seasons, as he pounded his career-best score of 159* in a historic series-winning cause in Australia, and a match-winning home hundred against England on the dust bowl of Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium. Pant’s fighting 100* in Newlands against South Africa and 146 at Edgbaston against England in 2022 came in some of India’s hostile away tours under seemingly hopeless match situations in recent memory.

In September 2024, at the age of nearly 27, Rishabh Pant levelled up with his childhood hero MS Dhoni by hauling his sixth Test ton, achieving so in significantly lesser time with just 58 innings.