Wriddhiman Saha: A 'Keeper, Pure And Simple

It’s interesting that Wriddhiman Saha has been persevered with. Where a majority of countries has chosen to go the way of the bat, India’s think-tank has privileged the gloves: they’ve chosen the best ’keeper, trusting, perhaps even hoping, the runs will come.

- S. Ram Mahesh

Wicket keepers are waiters — by nurture, if not always nature. The role’s very essencedecrees as much: the ’keeper must wait his turn, till first the bowler and then the batsman have done their bit; he is not permitted to touch the ball before that.

What’s more, the job reinforces this state of being. It favours the incumbent — possession is nine-tenths of the law, and so when a ’keeper takes up residence in a side, the rivals trying to oust him must bide their time.

While some rail against this, Wriddhiman Saha looks a man entirely at ease with waiting. His First Class debut for Bengal was deferred until Deep Dasgupta went to the Indian Cricket League. And as M. S. Dhoni’s understudy in the Indian squad — a slight shouldered, slim-waisted presence amidst brighter stars — Saha played a mere three Tests in nearly five years, the first of them as an emergency batting stand-in.

In this peripheral squad life occur a thousand deaths — of hope, ambition, confidence, even sharpness. When the chance does come, there is often too little to win, too much to lose. Dinesh Karthik and Parthiv Patel, for instance, played themselves out of the reckoning. They shelled catches when they were called up, Karthik in Sri Lanka in 2008 and in New Zealand in 2010, Parthiv in Sri Lanka in 2008. Worse, neither made enough runs. Considering that both were perceived as better batsmen than glovemen, this was especially costly.

SAHA, THOUGH, HAS ENDURED. Every time he auditioned, his work behind the stumps had an orderly, unobtrusive excellence about it. His work in front suggested a certain stickability. Following the Boxing Day Test of 2014, he has replaced Dhoni about as well as can be expected — he brings different things to the table — and finds himself the one consigning others to the waiting.