Adam Gilchrist stood behind the sticks for some really world class speedsters and spinners and rarely did he find himself in trouble keeping against them simply because his keeping skills were so good.
But there was one bowler who really tested Gillie’s keeping skills and the funny thing is that he was not even a specialist bowler, but, a part timer.
And Guess who that part timer was? It was Michael Bevan.
As per Gilchrist, the reason why he found Bevan the most difficult to keep for was because of the variations in his bowling and also because of the inconsistency in his line.
Bevan was a wrist spinner and that too a southpaw wrist spinner. So, he couldn’t quite figure out from his hands which way he was going to spin the ball.
Secondly because of the fact that Bevan didn’t use to bowl on a regular basis, he didn’t have that much of control over his direction and he would always err in terms of his line. .
One ball he would bowl on leg stick and the other he would suddenly push very, very wide outside the off stump. So that would make it further tough from a keeper’s point of view.
Bevan might not be the most accurate bowler of all time, but, he has a bowling record to his name which any bowler would be proud of.
He has a 10-fer to his name in a test match and that too not in the subcontinent, but, back home in Australia where there happens to be no assistance for the spin bowlers at all.
Bevan couldn’t have as long a career in test Cricket as he would have liked, but, because of his heroics in limited-Over Cricket, he is remembered as an Australian legend.