During one of the studio discussions at the fag end of the second Test between India and Sri Lanka, Harsha Bhogle posed a question to Sunil Gavaskar. He wanted the former captain and ubiquitous commentator’s thoughts on something. Gavaskar said ‘words fail me.’ And words usually don’t fail Gavaskar.
He was talking about Wriddhiman Saha’s wicket-keeping.
Take Virat Kohli’s quotes in April 2015, a few months after MS Dhoni’s retirement from Tests.
“Every time he’s got to play has been when MS has been injured. But now his time to be permanent in Tests has come, and I’m very excited about it. At 30, he’s very fit and extremely hard working. He deserves that spot in the Test side for at least the next 5-6 years.”
And fast forward to 2017, after the second Test against Sri Lanka – another clinical win for Kohli’s men – the captain gushed about his man behind the stumps.
“Four byes on that sort of pitch speaks volumes of the kind of ability he has. He’s right up there in world cricket among the very best. He’s the best keeper in this format right now, I’d say. You saw his keeping today, how agile he is. He can create chances at any stage. He’s very safe behind the stumps and he’s been outstanding.
That number – four byes – is astounding. Even more so, those four byes came in the first innings that lasted fewer overs than a completed ODI innings. In 117 overs of the second innings, he conceded zero byes. As much as R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja’s five-wicket hauls, as much as Cheteshwar Pujara’s third consecutive century in a Test in Sri Lanka, as much as any other statistic you can dig from that match, conceding four byes in 166 overs on a pitch that exploded into little pieces of dust when Jadeja and Ashwin hit the right areas, on a pitch where the spinners got more bounce than the pacers – that’s brilliance.
And if you don’t fancy the numbers, go back and check the moment in the match that got man-of-the-match Jadeja banned for the third Test.
He picks up the ball in his follow-through, simultaneously as his brain switches off, looks the batsman standing comfortably inside the crease, decides to use that strong arm of his and sends a tracer bullet (sorry) in the general direction of the stumps – Malinda Pushpakumara* dodges it, just about. But Saha, who is blinded by the batsman, instinctively puts his left hand out and stops the throw with the flap of his glove and expectedly, winces in pain. It was not a wicket, it would probably not even have been an overthrow for four. It was an inconsequential moment in the context of the match (well, not for Jadeja) but it showed how keyed in Saha is.
Apart from these small moments, Saha had a Test that will go in the highlight reel of his career. The catch to dismiss Mendis was special. While the rest of the team was appealing for an LBW, Saha realised there was an inside edge from Mendis on to the pad, he quickly made his move forward, dived and completed a clean take. Then a ‘bouncer’ from Jadeja that took Mathews by surprise and took his outside edge by ill-fate, was gathered with ease by Saha. It was a study in wicket-keeping against a spinner on a raging turner. Saha, in keeping with his understated role in the team, played down the brilliance of the two catches.
“First when Mendis got the inner edge I thought he will be bowled, the ball came in but hit the pad and lobbed up. The pace was slow so I got more time to get to the ball and I could dive because of that time based on my assumption. It was a good wicket. It helped increase my confidence on a tough wicket. The Mathews’ catch just stuck. I was lucky. It could have gone over Ajinkya Rahane but I was lucky it got stuck.”
He says luck, we would bet it is hours of hard work, slogging in the domestic circuit when Dhoni was cementing his place in Indian cricket’s hall of fame. Saha kept at it, and is now keeping up with the best in the world. His batting has steadily improved as well, along with the rest of India’s lower-order, but it is his stellar work behind the stumps that makes him undroppable to this Indian side.
India’s recent rise to the top of the world rankings began in Sri Lanka in 2015, briefly stopped over at West Indies in the middle but has largely been built on a marathon home season in 2016-’17. Any analysis praising the team’s dominance in this period – a 19-match unbeaten streak, eight consecutive series wins, tens of records broken – has come with a caveat. The caveat that the bowlers and batsmen have amassed these records in favourable conditions or favourable opponents or, in many cases, both. ‘Brilliant, but let’s wait for tougher tours,’ is still a common undercurrent.
But Saha’s wicket-keeping cannot be qualified under that caveat. Keeping wickets in subcontinent conditions for the world’s two best spinners, on tracks that turn from day one – that’s as tough as it gets in glovemen’s trade. Overseas tours will bring it’s own set of challenges, but with a technique as solid as Saha’s, he will be up for it. There won’t be paeans written about him, but his role in the team is perhaps as crucial as any of the batsmen or bowlers.
It has been evident for a while now that Saha, in the wicket-keeping department, has more than made up for the former captain’s absence. He has not just showed there is life beyond Dhoni, he has set the bar high enough to make India worry about replacing him as a wicket-keeper, when the time does come years down the line.
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Correction: The piece originally said Kusal Mendis was the batsman when Ravindra Jadeja threw the ball at the batsman. It’s been corrected to Malinda Pushpakumara.