Ron Saggers with the Australian cricket team in England in 1948

Ron Saggers was a member of Donald Bradman's famous Australian cricket team of 1948, which toured England and went undefeated in their 34 matches. This unprecedented feat by a Test side touring England earned them the sobriquet The Invincibles.
The team's reserve wicket-keeper, Saggers played in only the Fourth of five Tests, due to an injury to first-choice gloveman Don Tallon. The match was Saggers's Test debut and he scored five in his only innings with the bat and took three catches. Despite being the second-choice gloveman, Saggers conceded byes at a lower rate than Tallon did during the English summer. During the Fourth Test, Saggers conceded only six byes as England amassed a match total of 861, the lowest percentage of byes conceded by Australia in a match during the tour. Despite this, Tallon remained the favoured gloveman, as Bradman deemed him to be faster and more athletic.
Bradman rotated the two glovemen during the tour, and Saggers played in 17 of the 31 first-class matches, taking 23 catches and 20 stumpings. Due to Australia's powerful batting line-up, Saggers had few opportunities with the bat, scoring 209 runs at an average of 23.22, including his only century at first-class level, 104 not out against Essex.
Background
Saggers started the tour as the clear second-choice wicket-keeper, as Don Tallon had played in each of Australia's 11 Tests since the resumption of cricket after the Second World War, while Saggers was yet to make his Test debut. Saggers made his first-class debut shortly before the start of the war, and after the resumption, was regarded as the second in line for Test selection behind Tallon. However, as Australia did not make any substantial tours in the years immediately after the end of hostilities, there was no need to take a reserve gloveman on such trips. However, the trip to England meant more than six months abroad, so a back-up wicketkeeper was needed, and Saggers was selected for his first national squad. Accordingly, Tallon was selected as the wicket-keeper for the match. Tallon scored six, made five dismissals and conceded 11 byes as Australia crushed the hosts by an innings and 17 runs.
Tallon was then rested and Saggers took his place for the next county match against Leicestershire. Saggers scored six, took a catch in each innings and conceded only six byes as Australia won by an innings. Saggers was then rested for the next two matches, against Yorkshire and Surrey. Australia scraped home by four wickets in the former and won by an innings in the latter. Tallon batted steadily with 10, 17 not out and 50 not out, but conceded 35 byes while taking two catches. Tallon was having difficulty with the bounce and movement of the ball in English conditions, and sustained a bruised right finger when he lost sight of a Ray Lindwall bouncer on a misty morning during the Surrey match. He was hit after placing his hand over his face for protection, and the ball ran away for four byes.
While Tallon nursed a bruised finger, Saggers played in three successive tour matches. Of Saggers's innings, former Test batsman Jack Fingleton said that "he reminded me at times of Alan Kippax in his artistry. He plays all the strokes." Saggers took one catch as Australia won by an innings and 451 runs, their largest winning margin of the season. Saggers went without a dismissal and conceded 16 byes as Hampshire made 195 in their first innings. He came to the crease with Australia having scored 98 runs for the loss of seven wickets (7/98) and was last man out for 17, one of only four players to pass five, He then completed another stumping in the second innings and conceded four byes as Australia recovered to win by eight wickets.
Test omission
In Saggers' last three matches before the First Test, he conceded 36 byes and made six dismissals. Despite averaging more byes per innings than Saggers during the warm-up matches, Tallon was retained in the Test team. He took four catches and conceded 17 byes as Australia won by eight wickets.
Tallon was retained for the Second Test at Lord's, where he scored 53, took three catches and conceded 16 byes as Australia won by 409 runs. Nursing his finger injury, Tallon was rested for both tour matches between the Tests, which were against Surrey and Gloucestershire. Australia won the matches by ten wickets and an innings respectively. He took two catches, completed three stumpings and conceded 13 byes for the match.
Tallon was retained as the teams then played out a draw in the Third Test at Manchester. During the match, Tallon conceded 16 byes and dropped Denis Compton three times as the English batsman went from 50 to 145 not out. Tallon's little left finger swelled up after the Third Test and he exacerbated the injury during the next tour match against Middlesex,
Test debut
As a result of Tallon's finger injury, Saggers made his Test debut in the Fourth Test, which started at Headingley on 22 July 1948. and Jim Laker for four. Australia conceded 496 runs but Saggers leaked only two byes. Saggers's six byes out of England's match total of 861 runs was the lowest percentage of byes conceded by Australia in a match on the tour.
Saggers made six not out, completed two catches, a stumping and conceded 15 byes in the innings victory over Derbyshire, before being rested in the next match against Glamorgan. In his first match back from injury, Tallon took a catch and two stumpings, but conceded 19 byes in a rain-affected draw. Tallon's byes were 9.64% of the hosts' total, the highest percentage contribution made by byes to an innings on the tour. Saggers returned for the nine-wicket win over Warwickshire and struggled, making a duck. Although he took two catches and a stumping, he conceded 28 byes, 9.56% of Warwickshire's total runs, the second highest percentage contribution of byes to a match total against Australia. Saggers was then rested for Australia's second match and second draw against Lancashire as Tallon made three dismissals and conceded 23 byes. In the non-first-class match against Durham, Tallon played purely as a batsman, while Saggers kept wicket. Saggers came in at 8/226 and made 22 to help Australia reach 273. He then made two stumpings and conceded four byes as the hosts reached 5/73 when rain ended the match. With Tallon fit again for the Fifth Test, Saggers was omitted as Australia won by an innings and 149 runs to complete a 4-0 series victory. the Gentlemen of England, and Somerset, In total, he made seven dismissals and conceded 29 byes in the six innings of the three matches.
Australia's biggest challenge in the post-Test tour matches was against the . During the last tour in 1938, this team was effectively a full-strength England outfit, but this time Bradman insisted that only six current Test players be allowed to represent the hosts. Bradman then fielded a first-choice team; the only difference from the Fifth Test team was Ian Johnson's inclusion at the expense of Doug Ring. Saggers was left out as the match ended in a draw after multiple rain delays.
The tour ended with two non-first-class matches against Scotland. In the first match, Tallon played as a batsman while Saggers kept wicket. Saggers scored only eight in Australia's 236 and then took two catches, three stumpings and conceded 13 byes in the innings victory. In the second match in Aberdeen, Saggers was rested as Australia completed another innings win.
Role
The reserve wicket-keeper, Saggers played in 17 first-class matches and scored 209 runs at an average of 23.22, 23 catches and 20 stumpings, also career records for one season. In all his matches on tour, Tallon missed 249 byes as Australia conceded 5331 runs, a bye percentage of 4.67%. In contrast, Saggers conceded 221 byes from the 6190 runs scored against Australia when he was behind the stumps, a percentage of 3.57%. In his 1950 book Farewell to cricket, Bradman said of Saggers, " had not quite the speed or agility of Tallon but could always be relied on for a solid performance. A most polished and unostentatious player."
During the tour, Saggers had few opportunities with the bat, generally batting between No. 8 and No. 10, because Australia's frontline bowlers included the likes of Ray Lindwall, Colin McCool, Ian Johnson and Doug Ring, who were all capable batsmen. Lindwall scored two Test centuries in his career, while McCool scored 18 first-class centuries, one in Tests. Johnson and Ring both scored more than 20 fifties at first-class level. As a result, many of the bowlers batted before he did. As Australia often won by an innings, and declared in the first innings on many occasions, Saggers only had 12 innings in his 17 first-class fixtures and was not out three times after his remaining partners had been dismissed.<ref name=o/>

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