A bouncer from Ebadot Hossain touched the gloves of Ikram Alikhil. The catch Litton Das took by diving to his right was truly memorable.
It wasn’t just a catch. Litton’s performance with both the bat and the wicketkeeping during the Abu Dhabi Test will remain etched in the spectators’ memories for a long time.
It will also be inscribed in the record books, as Litton set a world record by taking that catch!
The catch of Ikram, taken late in the morning session on the fifth day of the Test, marked wicketkeeper Litton’s ninth dismissal of the match. Litton scored 53 runs in Bangladesh’s first innings and played an innings of 102 runs in the second innings.
He became the first wicketkeeper in Test history to score 50+ runs twice and achieved 9 dismissals in a single match. The previous record was done by South Africa’s Denis Lindsay.
In the 1966 Johannesburg Test against Australia, Lindsay recorded 8 dismissals alongside scores of 50+ in both innings.
In that match, he scored 69 runs in South Africa’s first innings and 182 in the second innings. He took 6 catches during Australia’s first innings and another two in the second.
In the Abu Dhabi Test so far, Litton Das took 8 catches and effected one stumping. The record for the most dismissals in a single Test match is within his reach.
England’s Jack Russell, South Africa’s AB de Villiers, and India’s Rishabh Pant currently share this record, each having effected 11 dismissals in a match. Litton needs 2 more dismissals to join them and 3 more to break the record.
Former England wicketkeeper Russell achieved 11 dismissals against South Africa in the 1995 Johannesburg Test.
Eighteen years later, at the same venue, Proteas legend AB de Villiers equalled Russell’s record in a Test against Pakistan. Pant joined them in the record books by effecting 11 dismissals against Australia in the 2018 Adelaide Test.
Including yesterday’s match, a wicketkeeper has recorded nine dismissals in a single Test match on 31 occasions. Ten dismissals have been recorded five times.
Until yesterday, Liton held the record for the most dismissals by a Bangladeshi wicketkeeper in a single Test match with nine. The previous record was made by Khaled Mashud Pilot, who effected seven dismissals against Zimbabwe in 2004.