What is a Diamond Duck in cricket? - Check Here

Run-scoring. That's the single most important job of a batter out there in the middle the moment he walks out to bat on the 22 yards. It's something that doesn't change until the very end of his inning. But then scoring runs always is neither easy nor possible in cricket. 

And it's not too easy to understand just why is that. There are times where either the bowling is just too good and on other occasions, when the former doesn't happen, the batters plot their own downfall thanks to giving up their wicket. This could happen by playing a loose shot or by just being a touch careless. 

Eitherways, batters get out on a duck, something no one, in any format of the game wants. And many a times, especially where it comes to Test match cricket, batters get out for a pair. Now a pair, quite simply, means when a batter gets out for a duck in both innings of a Test match.

Diamond Duck in Cricket - Explained

Having said that, what happens when a batter is out for a diamond duck? As a matter of fact, what is meant by a diamond duck?

To answer that, we need to simply understand the meaning of misfortune, utter misfortune. But why is that? When a batter is out for a duck but despite having not faced a delivery, the occurence is called a diamond duck. To make matters clear, when a batter is out despite having not faced a single 'legal' delivery, it is dubbed a diamond duck.

Surely, there could be nothing more embarrasing or let's contend with the fact that getting timed out could only rival that phenomenon. That told, let us try to understand just what could be the scenarios in which a batter could be out dismissed for a diamond duck?

For starters, especially in white-ball cricket, since it's where the pressure of scoring is much more than test match cricket, a batter could be out stumped on a wide ball. What's uncanny when such a thing happens is that the bowler might not even be at his best when the wicket falls but the batter falters whilst attempting to hit a stroke.

But when such a thing doesn't happen, then the usual diamond duck dismissal occurs with the non-striker getting out during the course or event of a run-out. The batsman hits the shot, calls for the run or maybe his partner does, but in the event of whatever failure that takes place in completing the legal or fair run, the man at the other end gets dismissed run out. And that man, it ought to be noted, is not the batter.

This is a common diamond duck result. But what one must remember here is that a diamond duck is different from a usual duck where a batter could be out first ball but only after facing that particular delivery. In diamond duck, the person out doesn't even face the ball.

Several Indian batters, from what is actually a comprehensive list, have been dismissed for a diamond duck. Some of these names are of rather prominent batters, who one might actually be surprised to note. But then, such is the nature of the sport.

Having said that let us discover the names of Indian batters to have been out by virtue of a diamond duck: