Debasis Sen, Gros Islet: It is routine practice that is being followed by the Indian team in this series that the performer of the day in the team leaves a message on the twitter mirror after the day’s play. So it was not surprising to see Wriddhiman Saha leaving a message in his mother tongue Bengali on Wednesday. Saha is perhaps the most reclusive cricketer in the current Indian team. He barely expresses himself; rather prefers to keep a low profile.
But when it comes to cricket, he is one who is ever willing to take up a challenge. It was one such day in Darren Sammy Stadium on Wednesday when the stumper went on to score his maiden ton in test cricket. He is someone who puts a price on his wicket as Ravichandran Ashwin said after the day’s play.
“The thing with Saha is he puts a price on his wicket. He is a damn good player of spin. He can really tonk the ball. That I know from having played first-class cricket with him. So I know Saha pretty well and our communication was centred around sticking on rather than look for avenues for scoring runs,” said Ashwin.
Saha, took 14 test matches and 22 innings to score his maiden ton, a statistics that will not attract many. But the valuable contributions he has made in Galle, Colombo, Antigua and Jamaica cannot be overlooked. He is a thorough team man according to captain Virat Kohli, someone whom you can rely on. There haven’t been any doubts about his wicket keeping but there was always a question mark over his temperament.
In his short international career so far, there have been quite a few instances when he was accused of throwing away his wicket. He failed to convert the starts he got in Antigua and Jamaica where he was dismissed trying to be too ambitious. One still remembers the shot he played against Nathan Lyon in Adelaide that brought about his downfall. Had he stayed there on the wicket with Kohli, India may have achieved the target of 364.
What the innings in St Lucia has done for him is, it has put an end to the discussion that he cannot score big with the bat. It also gives him the free space as there was a stiff competition from the likes of Naman Ojha.
Unlike his keeping, Saha doesn’t have the best batting technique. There are two visible problems in his batting — at times, he tends to play too many shots for his own good and often, his head falls over while playing the incoming delivery. One can hope he will rectify these two problems with the passage of time.
Saha was part of a record partnership with Ashwin for the sixth wicket as they put on 213 runs. It is nothing new for them batting together as they have also done it in the past. Both of them withstood the pressure and took India out of trouble.
“Saha pretty much expressed himself this morning. He played quite a few shots. To me it was very important that I hung around and I stuck around because that kind of solidity was very important. We knew we were 50-60 runs away from any kind of respectability. I wanted to leave the balls. I wanted to play close to my body and try and bat time. We were communicating about which way the ball was swinging and what the bowler was looking to do,” said Ashwin about his partnership with Saha.
With a century under his belt, Saha will look to bat with more confidence and freedom in the future. And that’s good news for Team India as it looks to play Test cricket with five bowlers.