India vs South Africa: Excellent wicketkeeper and reliable batsman, Wriddhiman Saha could be India’s lower-order purveyor

How does one summon the motivation to keep applying for a job that is perpetually taken? Perhaps a session with Wriddhiman Saha would do. Being a wicketkeeper is a thankless enough role, much less being an Indian wicketkeeper in the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-era. An assembly line of fine wicketkeeper-batsmen waited for their turn as Dhoni routinely alternated between a memorable finish with the bat and an inspired stumping behind the stumps. Add to it the fact that he earned every possible trophy there is, and the dreams of many young men hoping to emulate him in near future took a decisive beating. The list is impressive: Parthiv Patel, Dinesh Karthik, Naman Ojha, and Saha. Both Patel and Karthik made their Test debut before Dhoni — in 2002 and 2004 respectively. There was a time when they were front-runners for the wicketkeeper’s slot, until Dhoni donned whites for India in 2005 and sealed his place. Saha, who started playing first-class cricket two years after Dhoni’s debut, plied his trade in domestic circuit when the then India captain reached the peak of his powers. A national call-up looked distant, and the fact that he is elder — if only by a year — to Karthik and Patel was not too encouraging either. Fortune arrived in the form of Rohit Sharma, who got injured on the morning of the series-opener against South Africa in Nagpur. Touted as the next big gun from the Mumbai stable of batsmen, Rohit was certain to make his Test debut. While Rohit would endure a three-year wait for his dream debut that finally arrived against West Indies in Kolkata, Saha was duly forgotten. Between his debut and second coming in Adelaide in 2014, he played just one Test — also in Adelaide — in 2012. The 2014 series in Australia saw Dhoni’s shock retirement from Tests, and so Saha, for long the perennial understudy, got his chance. His keeping style, unlike Dhoni, is efficiently traditional and devoid of eye-catching stumpings and cheeky parrying of throws from the deep. That, however, doesn’t diminish his worth as a wicketkeeper. Being billed as country’s best gloveman can have its pitfalls. For starters, it can put the incumbent under serious pressure that can be detrimental to his career. The hard grind of domestic cricket though has made Saha a tough nut. He proved himself in the long home season of 2016-17 and the intermittent tours to Sri Lanka and West Indies. As Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja spun India to the summit of Test cricket, Saha pulled off eye-popping saves and unglamorous low catches on viciously-turning tracks that had variable bounce and inconsistent pace. Saha played 10 of the 13 Tests in the 2016-17 season, pouching 25 catches and effecting a solitary stumping. While the spinners and Virat Kohli deservedly got the credit, Saha’s performances went under the radar. In fact, Saha wouldn’t have had it any other way. Humble, unassuming and quietly confident, he is a bit of an outlier in this Indian team of high-flying, tattoo-wielding superstars. His external veneer, however, is a smokescreen, for it conceals a fiercely doughty man and a mighty effective cricketer. With bat, Saha provides a reliable option at No 6 or 7, depending upon where Kohli sends him. Besides being adept at farming the strike with the lower-order batsmen, he does possess a devastating attacking game, as is evidenced from the fact of him being the only centurion in an Indian Premier League (IPL) final. His solitary Test ton in India’s home season came against the toughest opponents, Australia, and proved instrumental in overhauling their first innings tally of 451 runs. If Kohli puts his five-bowler theory to practice, the onus would also be on Saha to add crucial runs to give impetus to the innings. Saha has been to South Africa twice, but didn’t get a game. 2018 will be different though, and the fact that Parthiv, the first among Dhoni, Saha and Karthik to play for India, will be part of the team as the reserve ‘keeper, indicates how far the diminutive boy from Bengal has come. Click  here  to read profiles of other Indian players involved in the Test series against South Africa Click  here  for the full schedule of India’s tour to South Africa, when and where to watch the matches, live coverage on TV, online streaming