Neil McKenzie was the easiest player to rattle: Adam Gilchrist

Former Australian wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist was renowned for his aggressive approach on the field. He was never shy of chirping a few words from behind the stumps to unsettle the concentration levels of the opposition batsmen. Recently, as per the quotes in sport24.co.za, Gilchrist revealed the name of the cricketer who he felt was the easiest to rattle on the cricket field.

Well, the reason behind picking this particular player was not his short temper but rather the fact that he was highly superstitious. So, Adam Gilchrist, and his other Aussie teammates, often had their bit of fun whenever they saw this batsman come out to bat. And the name of this player is Neil McKenzie. McKenzie is currently the batting coach of the South African national side.

Highly superstitious guy

He was a phenomenal opening batsman for the Proteas team in the longest format of the game. In the 58 Tests that he played, he amassed 3253 runs at an average of almost 38. Elaborating his pick, Adam Gilchrist conceded that McKenzie had a lot of superstitions going. One among those was to not fiddle around with the crease lines. Hence, Gilchrist often played around with the crease lines whenever McKenzie came in to bat.

“I don’t know if he was the easiest player to rattle but I think Neil McKenzie from South Africa was one. We all knew that he had a whole lot of superstitions and routines that he had to go through. I was told quite early that he hated stepping on the crease lines or any lines, where you mark centre, he just had this phobia of lines,” quoted Adam Gilchrist.

“So I just often spent a lot of time scratching lines in the crease line and in and around where he had to stand. That was always a bit of fun just to try and see how that affected him, but he was a good player,” added the former cricketer.