Denesh Ramdin

Denesh Ramdin

Personal information
Nickname	Shotter
Batting	Right-handed
Role	Wicket-keeper
International information
National side	West Indies
Test debut (cap 263)	13 July 2005 v Sri Lanka
Last Test	21 May 2012 v England
ODI debut (cap 127)	31 July 2005 v India
Last ODI	11 December 2011 v India
Domestic team information
Years	Team
2004–present	Trinidad and Tobago
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA Matches 43 89 98 124 Runs scored 1,531 1,067 4,271 1,889 Batting average 22.85 20.51 30.50 23.91 100s/50s 1/8 0/3 9/19 0/6 Top score 166 96 166* 96 Catches/stumpings 125/3 119/5 260/24 162/14
Source: CricketArchive, 21 May 2012

Denesh Ramdin (born March 13, 1985) is a West Indian cricketer of Indian descent from Trinidad. He is a right-handed batsman who generally occupies the position of wicketkeeper.

Career

He has captained both the West Indies' and Trinidad's Under-19 teams.

When the West Indies toured Sri Lanka in July and August 2005, the 19-year-old Ramdin was the only wicket-keeper in the 15-man squad, taking over from the incumbent Courtney Browne. Brown did not play international cricket after he was replaced by Ramdin and retired later that year at the age of 34. At the time of his selection, Ramdin has played in just first-class games of experience with three scores above fifty including one century.

In April 2006 he was one of six players shortlisted for captaincy of the West Indies cricket team following the resignation of Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Out of those six players, which also included Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Daren Ganga, and Sylvester Joseph, the captaincy was given to veteran batsman and former captain Brian Lara.

Although he is the first-choice Test wicket-keeper, he has competed to be first-choice wicket-keeper spot to Carlton Baugh, Jr. in ODIs. Ultimately, only Ramdin was selected for the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

However, Ramdin went on to cement his place as the West Indies wicket keeper in all forms of the game and was the vice-captain at one point, following the resignation from that position of Ramnaresh Sarwan.

He scored his maiden Test century against England in the fourth Test at Barbados in 2009, going on to score 166 in a drawn match.

He hit two centuries in the 2009/10 Regional Four Day Competition in the West Indies, at an average of 113.33, amassing 340 runs in 6 innings. Trinidad and Tobago has named Ramdin as their captain from 2011/12 season.

Playing style

Ramdin and Carlton Baugh have been the two main contenders for the wicket-keeping position in the national side since 2005. While Ramdin's innings of 166 against England in 2009 is the second-highest score by a West Indian 'keeper in Tests, neither Ramdin nor Baugh have scored enough runs to secure the position. Between 1960 and 2012 West Indian wicket-keepers averaged 24.68 runs per Test innings, and only Bangladesh has a worse average. Between May 2007 and May 2012, West Indian wicket-keepers scored 1,332 runs from 45 Tests; the batting average of 18.76 is the lowest amongst all ten Test teams in this period, nearly 10 runs behind the next lowest. Ramdin is seen by selectors and fans as a replacement in terms of playing style for Jeff Dujon.