In my view, SL did the right thing; since Sangakarra was so valuable to the team as a batsman, they did not want to risk him for injury and thus they recruited a WK. Sangakarra has performed well with the batsman.

According to Syed Kirmani –
Today, Gilchrist is the best WK, after a long gap the second best WK is Mark Boucher of SA. Other WK in his view are not world class and do not have the basic technique.

As a WK, Gilchrist is not as good as Alan Knott or Bob Taylor or Godfrey Evans (whom I have not seen, only read about him).

But with Gilchrist in the side, batting at No. 7, the higher order batsmen are able to take chances and dominate the bowling.

I like style over substance just kidding.

There is an elegance to WK – on how to collect the ball, diving for catches, stumping etc. I do not see that in Dhoni. He is effective, no doubt. I agree, arguably Dhoni is the best WK now in India. Kartick is OK as a WK. Parthiv Patel was horrible as a WK for spinners.

Chennai selecting Dhoni instead of Karthick is a clear indication of how “neutral” the Chennai fans are

IMVHO, Sangakkara is not a good ‘keeper. He regularly drops catches and does not ‘keep for Sri Lanka in the Tests. Don’t get me wrong. He is a terrific batsman and a competent ‘keeper in ODIs. He is certainly an asset to his team. But he is not the best ‘keeper in Sri Lanka.

Although there might be differing opinions on this, I believe Gilchrist is not (and was not, right through his career) the best ‘keeper in the land. Again, don’t get me wrong. He is a terrific batsman and a very competent ‘keeper. He is certainly an asset to his team and to world cricket. He is arguably the best ‘keeper-batsman to have played the game.

M. S. Dhoni is arguably, by contrast, the best ‘keeper in India today. Although one may point to Dinesh Karthik or Pankaj Dharmani or V. S. T. Naidu or M. S. K. Prasad or Parthiv Patel or Mithun Manhas or Vinayak Samant or Manvinder Bisla or Puneet Bisht or Amir Khan as a list of other competent ‘keepers in India, most players would probably tell you that Dhoni is the safest/best. Apart from a horror start to his tour of England last year, his ‘keeping has been steady, if not good/competent. In my view, even if he were an ordinary batsman, Dhoni would find a place in the Indian team as a ‘keeper. The fact that he is a terrific batsman too makes him quite special.

This was probably reflected in the Chennai team bidding over $1.5m for Dhoni, while sending Chennai’s own son, ‘keeper Dinesh Karthik, to Delhi in yesterday’s IPL bidding wars!

– Mohan

IMHO, Sangakarra and Dhoni are not the same league.

I had assumed that Gilchrist was the best WK and batman ever to have played the game. The previous great WK like Alan Knott, Bob Taylor were superb WK. But Gilchrist had taken that to another level – both in terms of batting and keeping.

Now, Sangakarra is almost in the Gilchrist league, if not better. Scoring centuries, at No. 3. against quality bowling and superb Wicket keeping.

Sangakarra keeps WK for Muralitharan and stands close to the stumps for Vaas in one -day matches, which keeps the pressure on batsmen !