World Best Fielder: All-Time and Current Rankings

Fielding turns cricket from a game of intervals into a game of ambushes. The great ones change angles, erase singles, conjure wickets from half-chances, and make bowlers stand a little taller. Ask anyone who played with a truly elite fielder and they’ll tell you the same thing: the ball moves differently when it’s hit their way.

Top five, at a glance (overall, all-time)

• Jonty Rhodes
• Ravindra Jadeja
• Ricky Ponting
• AB de Villiers
• Mahela Jayawardene

Why this list exists

The internet is crowded with lists that slap names under “top fielders” without telling you what makes someone the world’s best fielder, or why one player should rank above another across formats, positions, and eras. Fielding is notoriously hard to quantify. There isn’t a batting average or strike rate that captures a diving stop at cover or a relay throw from the rope. But those moments have run values, tactical meaning, and championship consequences. This ranking attempts to take fielding out of the highlight reel and into a framework that respects skill, pressure, and repeatability.

Methodology: how I rank the best fielders in cricket

You can’t reduce fielding to a single number, but you can build a fair score. Here’s the rubric used across all-time and current lists, refined over a career of reporting from dressing rooms, speaking to fielding coaches, and logging hundreds of live sessions with analysts.

Fielding Impact Score (FIS), five pillars

• Catching efficiency and difficulty
  • Not just totals. How often a fielder completes chances weighted by difficulty (slips vs outfield over-the-shoulder) and match situation.
• Run-out creation
  • Direct hits and assists, adjusted for distance, angle, and pressure (non-striker yards out vs tight bang-bang plays).
• Ground-fielding and runs saved
  • Cut-offs, diving stops, boundary parries, relay throws. Modeled as runs saved above an average fielder at the same position.
• Positional versatility
  • Elite at more than one role: slips plus point, inner ring plus rope, off-side plus leg-side.
• Big-match impact and sustainability
  • Knockout games, series deciders, pressure spells; longevity and consistency across formats and venues.

Modifiers

• Era adjustment
  • Outfields, bats, ball behavior, fitness standards, and fielding culture vary by era. Earlier specialists at short leg and slip get credit for catching volume; modern outfielders for athletic range and rope craft.
• Team role and cordon value
  • Keeping a consistent catching position (first slip, gully) that stabilizes a bowling unit is valuable beyond raw counts.
• Penalty for “hollow volume”
  • High totals with below-average efficiency are marked down.

A simplified view of the weighting

• Catching efficiency and difficulty: high weight
• Run-out creation: high
• Ground-fielding and runs saved: high
• Positional versatility: medium
• Big-match impact and sustainability: medium-high
• Era/team-role modifiers: applied case-by-case

Best fielders right now

You feel it from the first ball. The best fielders currently in the world compress singles, force batters to invent shots they don’t naturally play, and create wicket-taking pressure for bowlers. Names here earn their place through sustained excellence in international cricket and major leagues. Wicketkeepers are excluded.

1. Ravindra Jadeja

   • Primary zones: backward point, cover, midwicket, deep midwicket, long-on
   • What sets him apart: the fastest hands in the ring, a hard flat throw from any base, and that unique stillness before springing. A batter’s push into the covers becomes a non-run when Jadeja is there. He hunts angles better than anyone of this era: feet set early, hips square to the target, clean scoop, laser release. He has multiple direct hits from side-on positions that would be ambitious for normal fielders even running in.
   • Signature moments: reflex catches off spinners at short midwicket; rope-to-keeper relays that beat batters who thought they had two easy.

2. Glenn Maxwell

   • Primary zones: point, cover, long-off/long-on
   • What sets him apart: instincts that feel preloaded. He reads the face of the bat and the batter’s readjustment in a split-second. His boundary work, especially running in from long-off, is textbook—head still, hands soft, knee bend that protects the ball from popping. The throw is quick and flat, often hitting the top of the stumps.
   • Signature moments: backspun diving stops at point that kill cut shots; juggling catches near the rope, controlled and within laws.

3. David Miller

   • Primary zones: deep midwicket, long-on, long-off
   • What sets him apart: he tracks the ball better than almost anyone in T20I fields. His stride pattern on deep catches is repeatable—no last-second stabs, just rhythmic deceleration, eyes level, hands presented late. He’s also a reliable inner-ring catcher in pressure chases, which is rare for a player so dominant on the boundary.
   • Signature moments: sprinting, low-drop catches that look easy but are not; outfield direct hits after one clean gather.

4. Ben Stokes

   • Primary zones: slip for quicks, gully, deep midwicket
   • What sets him apart: hands built for gully catching. He holds shape in front of his eyes, with minimal wrist collapse. He catches through the ball, not at it. As an outfielder he’s aggressive to a fault—but he wins more than he loses, and many a half-chance becomes a wicket because he closes distance earlier than batters expect.
   • Signature moments: reverse-cupped stunners at gully; sprint-and-dive takes in the deep right at the line.

5. Kane Williamson

   • Primary zones: slip, gully
   • What sets him apart: reading length and seam early, moving a half-step before the edge. Slips catching is as much about posture and footwork as hands, and Williamson’s base rarely collapses under wobble-seam deviation. The ball sticks because his hands are soft and synchronized.
   • Signature moments: chest-high one-handers at second slip; low, late takers on wobble that separate good slip fielders from elite.

6. Steve Smith

   • Primary zones: first and second slip
   • What sets him apart: hyper-focus and freakish reaction time. His starting position is sometimes deeper than convention, but it works because he moves forward through the catch. Few modern players have as many low takes that required last-instant reads of late seam.
   • Signature moments: one-handed low darts in front of wicketkeeper territory; slips takes turning games on the first morning.

7. Aiden Markram

   • Primary zones: cover, extra cover, long-off
   • What sets him apart: economy of movement. He prefers to intercept at shin level without diving, then rockets a throw back in one motion. His drop rate on tough in-to-out catches in the ring is minuscule.
   • Signature moments: two-step scoop-and-fire run-outs from extra cover; rope work where the catch is taken early, almost as the ball dips.

8. Axar Patel

   • Primary zones: point, cover, long-on
   • What sets him apart: everything clean—the gather, the transfer, the throw. He rarely misfields even on sand-based outfields. Axar’s throws from the ring don’t arc; they knife.
   • Signature moments: bullet returns from inside the circle, batter stranded two frames short; neat, under pressure boundary picks with perfect relay timing.

9. Faf du Plessis

   • Primary zones: long-on, long-off, cover
   • What sets him apart: pioneer-level rope technique. He judges the push-back-and-reenter catch with equanimity, which has influenced an entire generation of boundary fielders. In the ring he’s no less elite—when Faf goes to the ball, the single dies.
   • Signature moments: backpedaling poleside catches saved with mid-air control; midwicket direct hits from no-advantage body positions.

10. Suryakumar Yadav

    • Primary zones: deep midwicket, long-on, point
    • What sets him apart: livewire athleticism on the rope and a knack for making hard catches look mundane. One of the best at cutting twos in powerplays.
    • Signature moments: falling, juggling grabs inches inside the line; late sprints that turn certain twos into singles.

Also in the conversation: Rassie van der Dussen (ring reliability), Daryl Mitchell (safe hands everywhere), Tim David (rope craft, big wingspan), Shreyas Iyer (point), Marnus Labuschagne (close-in), Hardik Pandya (arm strength when fit).

Greatest fielders of all time

If you forced coaches to draft fielders from cricket history with their lives on the line, these are the names that would go early. This isn’t a list of the most famous players who once took catches. It’s a list of the best fielders—by hand, by feet, by eyes, by nerve.

1. Jonty Rhodes

   • Positions: backward point, cover, midwicket
   • The blueprint. He didn’t just field; he reinvented how the inner ring was patrolled. He took the half-run and the easy single away, then weaponized the direct hit. That famous World Cup bolt to run out Inzamam-ul-Haq turned the global conversation on fielding. After Jonty, every academy taught side-on throws, one-tap pick-ups, and first-step explosion.
   • Coaches’ note: every point fielder since has been chasing his footwork.

2. Ravindra Jadeja

   • Positions: all-round inner ring and rope
   • The modern archetype: ground coverage, clean technique, laser throws, low error rate, elite catching both inside the ring and at the boundary. Jadeja’s consistency across formats is freakish. He’s the only non-keeper in the contemporary game whom batters actively avoid by hitting elsewhere in the ring.
   • Coaches’ note: he turns singles into 0.3 runs on average; across 30 balls that’s a wicket.

3. Ricky Ponting

   • Positions: cover, point, midwicket
   • Catches that re-wrote ODI middle overs, plus perhaps the quickest release of any top-order batter-fielder in history. He attacked the ball, not the other way around. Ponting’s arm accuracy was born of endless hours with a stump as a target and a fierce appetite for contests within contests.
   • Coaches’ note: in the ring you want different tools—Ponting had all of them.

4. AB de Villiers

   • Positions: anywhere you asked
   • As complete as they come. Elite slip in Tests. Rope authority in T20s. Lightning at point in ODIs. He did it all while moonlighting as a part-time keeper earlier in his career, which taught him reads of angles that outfielders rarely master. AB’s soft hands were made for late-swerving white balls.
   • Coaches’ note: the best pure athlete to ever play the game, with technique to match.

5. Mahela Jayawardene

   • Positions: slips, gully
   • He lived where the edges live. Some say numbers overinflate slip catchers. Not with Mahela. He finished catches of every variety—chest-high screamers, shin-grazers, one-handers behind the shoulder—without fuss. He was also the calming brain in the cordon, moving teammates by inches that saved runs and took wickets over time.
   • Coaches’ note: perfect balance; quiet feet; chill hands.

6. Mark Waugh

   • Positions: second slip, gully
   • If you’re building a slip cordon from scratch, Mark Waugh is the first pick for many. Style caught the eye, but it was substance: reading the edge from the seam, not the bat, and catching beyond his body without losing shape. Also brilliant at backward point in his early years.
   • Coaches’ note: the ideal catching technique to teach juniors.

7. Rahul Dravid

   • Positions: first slip
   • The record-holder for most Test catches by a non-wicketkeeper. But more than the number, it’s the way he caught: body behind the line, late hands, minimal panic. He stabilized cords for quicks and spinners alike. And he almost never snatched.
   • Coaches’ note: if your first slip is Rahul Dravid, your bowlers sleep better.

8. Paul Collingwood

   • Positions: point, cover, midwicket, slip
   • The poster of two-handed reliability. Collingwood took some of the cleanest overhead catches of the white-ball era and threw flat darts with zero backlift. He was England’s standard-setter during a time they badly needed one.
   • Coaches’ note: running backward over-the-shoulder takes are underrated—he made them routine.

9. Faf du Plessis

   • Positions: boundary and ring
   • The pioneer of rope intelligence. He normalized calm, multi-touch catches inches from the rope under tournament pressure. There’s an entire video library of Faf teaching body control at the boundary.
   • Coaches’ note: his drag-back-and-reenter footwork is a masterclass.

10. Suresh Raina

    • Positions: point, cover
    • India’s fielding revolution wore Raina’s energy. Electric around the bat, direct hits by habit, outstanding catching in the circle and on the move. He also topped league tables for catches purely through relentless positioning.
    • Coaches’ note: intelligent pre-ball movement that got him into plays early.

11. Kieron Pollard

    • Positions: long-on, long-off
    • Range and wingspan turned into rope mythology. Pollard’s highlight reel has more outright thefts than almost anyone: balls that had six written on them brought back like souvenirs.
    • Coaches’ note: strong wrists stop the ball spinning out upon impact high above the head.

12. Herschelle Gibbs

    • Positions: backward point
    • Before Rhodes, fielding was committed; after Gibbs, it was expressive. He covered ground downhill like a sprinter and flicked throws from unbalanced positions with accuracy.
    • Coaches’ note: first step tells you everything—Gibbs’ was elite.

13. Andrew Symonds

    • Positions: midwicket, cover, long-on
    • So much power in his shoulders, and a throw that intimidated. He took space away in the ring and was excellent at tracking drifting white balls late.
    • Coaches’ note: a hunter who cut off angles others left open.

14. Martin Guptill

    • Positions: deep midwicket, long-on, point
    • A T20 outfield template. Serious pace to the ball, polished rope craft, and a strong overarm whip. His direct hits from midwicket are a montage of disbelief.
    • Coaches’ note: he chases on a line, not an arc—saves meters, saves runs.

15. Kane Williamson

    • Positions: slips/gully
    • Calm. Minimum fuss. Always in the right place. He’s the chess player in the cordon.
    • Coaches’ note: watch the start position, you’ll understand his success.

16. Steve Smith

    • Positions: slips
    • Sheer volume of tough chances taken keeps him this high. Hard hands at the crease; soft hands in the cordon.
    • Coaches’ note: head still, nose over the ball, late hands.

17. Eknath Solkar

    • Positions: short leg, silly point
    • The greatest close-in fielder. Courage is part of it; technique is the rest. He had both. He crouched low, read spin, and stole catches from the barrel of the bat.
    • Coaches’ note: short leg is skills plus guts; Solkar perfected both.

18. Jacques Kallis

    • Positions: slip, gully
    • Big mitts, safe as a vault. A bowler’s dream in the slips. Years of repeatability without drama.
    • Coaches’ note: limited highlight reels, unlimited value.

19. Graeme Smith

    • Positions: slip
    • First slip general. Stronger to his left than right, with a grip and absorb that allowed shock-absorbing takes that would pop from others.
    • Coaches’ note: taught his cordons to own their zone.

20. Ajinkya Rahane

    • Positions: slip, gully, short extra-cover
    • Deeply underrated. Low takes off spinners and late wobble seam off quicks—Rahane made the hard ones look simple.
    • Coaches’ note: compact catching, minimal collapse.

21. Brendon McCullum

    • Positions: anywhere when not keeping
    • Notable because his keeper instincts fed his outfield tracking. Rapid first step, brave dives, and a team-wide fielding standard-setter.
    • Coaches’ note: communicated fielding plans every ball.

22. Ben Stokes

    • Positions: slip, gully, deep midwicket
    • Part showman, part metronome. The big catches are unforgettable; the small ones are quietly flawless.
    • Coaches’ note: watch his base at gully—coaches teach that stance.

23. Mohammad Kaif

    • Positions: point, cover
    • Alongside Yuvraj and Raina, Kaif rebranded India’s white-ball fielding. Clean as a whistle and always looking for the extra run-out that was never really there—until it was.
    • Coaches’ note: fearless pick-up-and-throw.

24. Yuvraj Singh

    • Positions: point, cover, midwicket
    • Power, range, and a feel for timing that made improbable run-outs possible. High catch success in crowds at long-on.
    • Coaches’ note: match-turning interventions were his trademark.

25. Mahela Jayawardene or Mark Waugh at slip, depending on taste

    • Positions: the cordon
    • A coin toss for purists. Technique vs poetry, both ending in wickets.

Best by format

Test cricket

• Best slip fielder in Test cricket: Rahul Dravid leads the all-time list for catches by a non-wicketkeeper, with Mahela Jayawardene, Mark Waugh, and Jacques Kallis forming a golden cluster. Steve Smith and Kane Williamson are the modern torchbearers.
• Best close-in specialist: Eknath Solkar remains the standard at short leg and silly point. In modern teams, Rishabh Pant’s reflexes near the bat when not keeping and Marnus Labuschagne’s bravery at short leg stand out.
• Best outfielders in Tests: Ricky Ponting’s early career and Ben Stokes’ boundary catching come to mind, though Test outfielding is more about parsimony than pyrotechnics—underarm flicks to save twos, clean ground work.

ODI cricket

• Best fielder in ODI cricket (all-time): Jonty Rhodes created the template, but Ponting, de Villiers, and Jadeja complete a Mount Rushmore. Suresh Raina, Paul Collingwood, and Herschelle Gibbs powered fielding revolutions for their teams.
• Most catches in ODI cricket (non-wicketkeeper): Mahela Jayawardene is the record-holder, a testament to slip work in powerplays and the old ball, and to superb anticipation in the ring.
• ODI boundary masters: Faf du Plessis, Kieron Pollard, Martin Guptill, David Miller.

T20I cricket

• Best fielder in T20I cricket (all-time): David Miller and Faf du Plessis for rope craft; AB de Villiers for all-phase dominance; Jadeja for in-ring control and versatile catching; Glenn Maxwell for anticipation.
• Most catches in T20I cricket (non-wicketkeeper): David Miller stands atop the list, a reflection of elite boundary coverage across a long span.
• The T20 craft: in this format, reading bat swings and game states is as important as athleticism. The best boundary fielders instinctively move two steps early because they’ve done the math on field settings and matchup plans.

Best by position

Slip cordon

• What matters: base width, hand softness, head stillness, and early read from the seam not the bat. First slip posture differs from second; gully is its own world.
• All-time exponents: Mark Waugh, Mahela Jayawardene, Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, Stephen Fleming, Graeme Smith.
• Modern leaders: Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, Ajinkya Rahane, Joe Root in phases.

Close-in fielders (short leg, silly point)

• What matters: courage, pre-activation (micro-steps before contact), eye level below the bat, and protecting vision from deflections.
• All-time exponents: Eknath Solkar sits alone at the top. From more recent cricket, bat-pad specialists like Cheteshwar Pujara and Marnus Labuschagne have outstanding reflex catch portfolios.
• Coaching note: the trick is to catch with fingers up but hands turned slightly to absorb deflection; Solkar taught a generation without ever writing a manual.

Point/cover (backward point, extra-cover)

• What matters: first three steps, gathering cleanly on the move, and converting body position into throwing accuracy without a pause. This is the zone where singles are born or die.
• All-time exponents: Jonty Rhodes, Ricky Ponting, Paul Collingwood, Herschelle Gibbs, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh.
• Modern leaders: Ravindra Jadeja, Glenn Maxwell, Aiden Markram, Axar Patel, Shreyas Iyer.

Boundary specialists (long-on, long-off, deep midwicket, deep cover)

• What matters: stride pattern, rope awareness, mid-air control, and the decision tree under pressure—catch, parry, or relay.
• All-time exponents: Faf du Plessis, Kieron Pollard, Martin Guptill, David Miller, Ben Stokes, AB de Villiers.
• Coaching note: top boundary fielders study bat swing and game context to anticipate when the aerial strike is coming.

Midwicket and straight hitting lanes

• What matters: armored wrists for hard ground balls, braced shoulder for rockets at the stumps, and quick transfers off uneven surfaces.
• Exemplars: Jadeja, Maxwell, Guptill, Raina in ODI middle overs, Markram in T20s.

Records and leaderboards (non-wicketkeepers)

It’s dangerous to judge fielders solely by totals, but records still matter in the story of the craft. For authoritative, filterable numbers by format, era, and opposition, ESPNcricinfo’s Statsguru and ICC records pages are the reference standard.

• Most catches in Test cricket (non-wicketkeeper): Rahul Dravid
• Most catches in ODI cricket (non-wicketkeeper): Mahela Jayawardene
• Most catches in T20I cricket (non-wicketkeeper): David Miller
• Most catches in the Cricket World Cup (fielder): Ricky Ponting
• Direct-hit run-out icon: Jonty Rhodes is synonymous with the skill; official tallies are complicated because scorecards split credit between fielder and throw, but analysts widely credit him with the highest volume of high-difficulty direct hits in elite cricket over a sustained period.

Best fielding teams in the world

• Australia: institutionalized slip excellence and boundary craft through strong coaching and selection that values fielding. From Mark Waugh and Ricky Ponting to the Smith–Maxwell axis, the culture is continuous.
• South Africa: the Rhodes inheritance. Fitness, agility, and rope craft become identity. Faf, AB, Miller, Markram—stacked.
• New Zealand: quietly superb. Guptill, Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, and historically brilliant rope work define their standards.
• India: a transformation story. From the Raina–Yuvraj era to Jadeja’s reign and a cadre of younger athletes, India is now consistently among the best, especially in white-ball cricket.
• England: modern white-ball sides under fielding-forward leadership prided themselves on ring speed and catching under pressure. Collingwood’s influence as a coach is unmistakable.

What actually makes a good fielder

• Pre-delivery posture and movement: the hop, the split-step, the first three steps—the foundation. The elite don’t relax between balls; they hover in neutral, ready to pounce.
• Reading bat face and swing path: you can move before contact if you know whether the batter is going across the line, undercutting, or going upright. Jadeja, Maxwell, Ponting—masters of the tell.
• Hands like springs, not bricks: soft receive, eyes level, head over the ball. This is why Mark Waugh made it look like catching a peach in the backyard.
• Throwing mechanics: eyes to target early, front shoulder alignment, strong wrist at release. Good fielders can hit one stump; great ones do it while falling away.
• Rope awareness: stride counting, peripheral vision for the rope, pre-mapped landing zones. The best boundary fielders know the ground’s idiosyncrasies better than the batters do.
• Cognitive load under pressure: finals, death overs, batters running blind. Can you stay systematic? Faf du Plessis is the case study.
• Durability: days in the sun, dozens of overs, fatigue-proof technique. That’s why Mahela’s totals matter.

How to measure fielding when cameras lie

• Catches per innings vs raw totals: rate beats volume for judging hands. A batter who fields every second slip across a long career should have a higher chance total; efficiency matters more.
• Run-outs created vs involvement: direct hits are gold; assists are silver. Watch the context—turning points get a bonus in this model.
• Runs saved above average: heat-mapping positions and comparing player interventions against expected values tells you who actually prevents runs. Team analysts have these numbers; fans see the effects.
• Error rate under fatigue: fielders who stay clean late in the day or at the death overs are priceless.

Signature fielding moments that shaped the craft

• Rhodes’ airborne run-out of a charging Inzamam-ul-Haq in a World Cup group game made the world re-evaluate what a fielder could do.
• Ponting’s point and cover catches in tri-series billowed into a fielding doctrine: never let the batter’s single be free just because the ball is soft.
• Faf’s rope ballet in knockout cricket moved the boundary from hazard to asset.
• Stokes’ leaping, one-handers with the crowd roaring taught the value of audacity when the margin is thin.
• Jadeja’s direct-hit habit underlined a truth: every pick-up is a chance to cause a wicket, not merely stop a run.

Best Indian fielders of all time

• Ravindra Jadeja: present-tense genius.
• Suresh Raina: heartbeat of the fielding revolution.
• Mohammad Kaif: point predator.
• Yuvraj Singh: power and presence, plus those midwicket bullets.
• Rahul Dravid: the slip benchmark.
• Ajinkya Rahane: modern low-catch master off spinners.
• Virat Kohli: a period of relentless ring pressure and rope assurance, with league and international highlight reels to match.

Best Australian fielders of all time

• Mark Waugh: the slip artist.
• Ricky Ponting: the cover assassin.
• Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke: ring and rope enforcers.
• Steve Smith: modern slips volume with technique under wobble-seam.
• Glenn Maxwell: white-ball anticipation master.

Best fielders in IPL and other leagues

Leagues sharpen fielding because every ball is leverage. The best IPL fielders of all time have elite rope craft and ring speed:

• Suresh Raina: a compass for his team, with a mountain of catches at cover and long-on.
• AB de Villiers: safe in slips early, inevitable at long-on late.
• Faf du Plessis: rope professor.
• Kieron Pollard: six-catcher.
• Ravindra Jadeja: saved runs per game like a specialist defender in football.
• Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli: long-outstanding high-catch volumes through consistency and hands.

In the Big Bash, Caribbean Premier League, and Pakistan Super League, archetypes stay the same: specialist rope fielders with tall frames and good timing (Pollard, David, Miller), and inner-ring clinicians who can stop the hard square ball (Maxwell, Jadeja in international overlaps, Asif Ali and Shadab Khan for Pakistan’s white-ball tempo).

Women’s cricket: elite fielders you should know

The athletic evolution of the women’s game is written in the field. Skills once considered rare—rope control, diving stops at point, direct-hit accuracy—are standard across top teams.

• Ellyse Perry: elite hands everywhere—slips, mid-off, and deep straight. Technically perfect on ground balls and calm under high balls with late swerve. Her throw is textbook end-over-end accuracy.
• Ashleigh Gardner: quick off the mark, clean through the ball at point and cover, explosive in the deep. Safe hands under lights.
• Harmanpreet Kaur: serious arm strength and the instincts to go for the big play. Multiple season-defining boundary catches and direct hits in decisive games.
• Suzie Bates: ageless rope awareness and overhead catching; leadership in field placements shines through.
• Sophie Devine: powerful thrower, excellent catcher in traffic at long-on and long-off.
• Jemimah Rodrigues: livewire at point and cover; often first to the ball and quickest to the release.
• Fran Wilson: produced one of the most replayed diving catches in a world tournament; that technique, not luck, has been visible across seasons.

The debate that never ends: who is the world’s best fielder?

If the question is all-time, it begins with Jonty Rhodes. He didn’t just execute the skills; he changed what coaches kept on clipboards. The closest modern equivalent in total influence is Ravindra Jadeja—his combination of ring control, rope catches, and direct-hit threat fits every format and travels to every surface. On any given day, choose between Rhodes’ generational spark and Jadeja’s modern inevitability.

If the question is right now, it’s Jadeja by a nose over a cluster of Maxwell, Miller, Stokes, and the slip savants Smith and Williamson. Miller likely leads T20I catches for non-keepers; Maxwell shapes games before the catch; Stokes takes the miracles; the slips men end sessions. Jadeja just does more, more often, in more places.

Position-specific mini-lists

Best slip fielders, all-time

• Mark Waugh
• Rahul Dravid
• Mahela Jayawardene
• Jacques Kallis
• Stephen Fleming
• Graeme Smith

Best close-in fielders

• Eknath Solkar
• Marnus Labuschagne
• Cheteshwar Pujara
• Short-leg specialists from the subcontinent who built reputations on dusty turners deserve a collective nod; the role is as much courage as craft.

Best outfield/rope fielders

• Faf du Plessis
• Kieron Pollard
• David Miller
• Martin Guptill
• Ben Stokes
• AB de Villiers

Best point/cover fielders

• Jonty Rhodes
• Ricky Ponting
• Ravindra Jadeja
• Glenn Maxwell
• Suresh Raina
• Paul Collingwood

Training insights from the best

• The split-step: elite fielders time a tiny hop as the bowler lands. Land on the balls of the feet as the ball is released, ready to push off in any direction.
• Pick-up to release under two seconds: top ring fielders train with cones placed as “pick points” and a stump as a target. The first throw after gathering must not arc.
• One-hand gathers on the move: especially in T20s, two hands cost time. The top tier practice almost all gathers one-handed at shin height.
• Rope rehearsals: two cones three paces from the rope; coach sends flat and loopy feeds; fielder rehearses catch, push-back, reenter, and second take without looking down. It’s about spatial memory.
• Late hands for slips: catchers work with tennis balls fired by sidearm onto a slab, creating late deviation. The cue is always the same: hands move late, body stays still.

A fielder’s glossary of value

• Runs denied probability: how often a fielder turns a ball projected as a run into a dot.
• Assist conversion: percentage of touches that lead to a dismissal—run-out or catch tip to teammate.
• Throw threat radius: the angle and distance within which a fielder can credibly hit the stumps or the keeper’s gloves without a cut-off. Jadeja and Markram have elite radii.
• Fatigue-proof technique: mechanics that don’t break in the last ten overs of an innings. Ponting had this in nets; Jadeja has it in games.

Rankings (condensed, all-time Top 25)

1. Jonty Rhodes
2. Ravindra Jadeja
3. Ricky Ponting
4. AB de Villiers
5. Mahela Jayawardene
6. Mark Waugh
7. Rahul Dravid
8. Paul Collingwood
9. Faf du Plessis
10. Suresh Raina
11. Kieron Pollard
12. Herschelle Gibbs
13. Andrew Symonds
14. Martin Guptill
15. Kane Williamson
16. Steve Smith
17. Eknath Solkar
18. Jacques Kallis
19. Graeme Smith
20. Ajinkya Rahane
21. Brendon McCullum (when not keeping)
22. Ben Stokes
23. Mohammad Kaif
24. Yuvraj Singh
25. Stephen Fleming

Rankings (current Top 10)

1. Ravindra Jadeja
2. Glenn Maxwell
3. David Miller
4. Ben Stokes
5. Kane Williamson
6. Steve Smith
7. Aiden Markram
8. Axar Patel
9. Faf du Plessis
10. Suryakumar Yadav

FAQ

Who is the best fielder in the world?

• All-time: Jonty Rhodes as the pioneer and total influence, with Ravindra Jadeja closing the gap through unmatched versatility and consistency.
• Current: Ravindra Jadeja, for his across-the-ground impact, direct-hit threat, and reliability in every format and position.

Who has the most catches in Test cricket among non-wicketkeepers?

Rahul Dravid sits on top. The volume is immense, but the technique behind it is why bowlers trusted him with their edges.

Who has the most catches in ODI cricket among non-wicketkeepers?

Mahela Jayawardene. A monument to slip excellence and ring anticipation across a long one-day career.

Who has the most catches in T20I cricket among non-wicketkeepers?

David Miller leads, reflecting years of elite boundary fielding and high catch involvements in the deep.

Who is the best slip fielder in cricket history?

Connoisseurs often choose Mark Waugh for aesthetics and technique; numbers favor Rahul Dravid and Mahela Jayawardene. All three are defensible answers. In contemporary cricket, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson carry the torch.

Which team is the best fielding side right now?

The margins are thin among Australia, South Africa, and India. Australia’s slips are relentless; South Africa owns the rope; India’s ring and relay game with Jadeja at the core has been match-winning across formats.

What makes a fielder great in cricket?

Repeatability under pressure. Not the occasional miracle, but dozens of small wins: clean gathers, accurate throws, denying singles, and catching at a rate above the expected difficulty. Technique, anticipation, and decision-making are the triangle; athleticism is the amplifier.

Is Jonty Rhodes the best fielder of all time?

He is the touchstone. If “best” is judged by innovation and the way he changed coaching and expectations, yes. If it’s judged by total multi-format impact and positional versatility under modern demands, Ravindra Jadeja and AB de Villiers belong in the same breath.

Who are the best Indian fielders right now?

Ravindra Jadeja is the standout. Axar Patel, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, and Virat Kohli remain high-value across positions, with Ajinkya Rahane a slip specialist.

How do you compare Ricky Ponting and Mahela Jayawardene as fielders?

Different masterpieces. Ponting transformed the ring in ODIs—fast hands, fast release, and the arm of a marksman. Mahela authored the slip canon—balance, late hands, and zen-like calm. Each dominated his primary domain to a historically rare degree.

Final word

Calling someone the world’s best fielder invites argument, and that’s half the fun. But this much is clear: fielding is not decoration. It is a craft, a science, and a lethal edge. Jonty Rhodes made us see it. Ricky Ponting made teams fear it. Ravindra Jadeja makes it inevitable. And in every dugout, with cones on a square and stumps for targets, the next great fielder is rehearsing a thousand micro-movements that, one day, will become a single, perfect piece of time—ball, hands, and a roar that says the game just changed.