Da Silva Byes & Leaves PAK vs WI Providence 2026: Keeping Audit

Joshua Da Silva took his guard a metre back from the stumps for the Providence Test second innings. Pakistan's spinners were turning. The pitch was throwing variable bounce. Da Silva had to cover both edges of the bat and a leg-side rough patch the size of a doormat. Eighteen byes and one missed stumping later, the keeping numbers became the conversation. Here is the audit.

Byes per innings — the headline

Across the Providence Test, Da Silva conceded 18 byes — 6 in the first innings, 12 in the second. The series total was 24 byes across the two Tests, with the first Test contributing only 6. The international Test average for byes per innings sat around 4.2 for the 2025 calendar year. Da Silva's 12-bye second innings is roughly three times the prevailing standard.

Eight of the 12 second-innings byes came down the leg side. The pitch's rough patch outside left-hander's leg stump was the line that did the damage — Noman Ali's arm-balls past leg stump were uncovered, the keeper's feet were planted, and the ball ran four off the wicketkeeper's thigh-pad.

Bye distribution by source

Bowler type	Byes conceded	Byes per 100 balls
Pace (right-arm)	4	0.6
Pace (left-arm Shaheen)	3	0.9
Spin (Noman left-arm)	8	2.4
Spin (Sajid Khan off)	3	1.2

The pace bye rate is on the international Test norm. The Noman bye rate of 2.4 per 100 balls is the diagnostic problem. Eight byes in 333 deliveries means once every 41.6 balls — a rate that is unsustainable in a four-innings format.

Leaves below chest height

A "leave" is the keeper choosing to let a delivery pass without a glove. We counted leaves below chest height because that is the zone where keeper-error hurts the slip cordon — a leave below chest height means the catcher is not standing in the gap.

Da Silva left 23 deliveries below chest height across the Test, of which 4 carried to first slip Shai Hope and were taken cleanly. None went to ground untouched. So the leaves were broadly correct calls. The leg-side leaves — 8 of the 23 — are where the second-innings problem grew. Two of those leaves were behind the line of leg stump and ran for byes.

For the wider context on how the Providence pitch played, our PAK vs WI 2nd Test Providence recap covers the surface-and-conditions read.

Take-down-leg percentage

Take-down-leg percentage — defined as the share of leg-stump line balls that the keeper gloves cleanly — is the technical number for spin-keepers. The international Test benchmark sits at 87.4%. Da Silva posted 78.2% across this Test, which is below benchmark by nearly ten points.

The cause is mechanical. Da Silva's feet were locked at the moment of delivery, which meant his glove arrived at the leg-side ball after the bounce had already shifted. On the rough patch, that lateness was costly. On the harder pitch at Sabina Park in Test-1, where bounce was even, the same mechanic was forgiving — the take-down-leg sat at 91% across that Test.

Take-down splits across both Tests

Test	Off-side take %	Leg-side take %	Stand-up take %
Sabina Park	96.4	91.0	88.2
Providence	92.1	78.2	73.6

The stand-up percentage at Providence — taking the ball cleanly when standing up to spin — is the genuine concern. Below 75% is a liability number against good spin attacks.

Dive ranges and the Rizwan stumping miss

Dive ranges sat between 0 and 1.4 metres across the Test. Da Silva's 12 keeper-only dives produced 9 cleanly gloved deliveries and 3 fumbles. The largest dive — 1.4 metres lateral, off a Sajid Khan turning ball outside off-stump — was a clean take.

The decisive missed take was the Rizwan stumping moment in the third evening. Rizwan was on 23. He came down the pitch to a Sajid drift-on, missed, and Da Silva had a stumping chance with 0.3 metres of glove movement required. The ball went under the gloves. Rizwan went on to 87, a knock that defines our PAK vs WI 2nd Test Providence recap with Rizwan's century.

The 38-year-old keeper read

For the umbrella statistical context, the PAK vs WI 2026 statistical post-mortem sits beside this audit.

Three reads. First, the Sabina-Providence gap shows Da Silva is a different keeper on dry, turning surfaces — the leg-side technique needs work, not the off-side. Second, the Rizwan stumping miss was the costliest single keeping moment of the series — 64 runs of fallout. Third, the 78.2% leg-side take number is the single line West Indies' coaching staff will print and pin on the dressing-room wall. Until that climbs back above 85%, Da Silva is a Test keeper on borrowed time. The numbers are not opinion. They are the audit.