India’s Wriddhiman Saha plays a rising delivery on the Sri Lanka tour. (Source: AP)
Wriddhiman Saha has caught the eye with his efficient glovework on spin-friendly pitches. The Bengal wicketkeeper is not very vocal behind the stumps and lets his work speak for itself. After India sealed the series in Colombo with a day to spare, Saha addressed a press conference on Monday.
Excerpts:
On keeping to different bowlers
If a lot of balls come to the ‘keeper it is good, otherwise we only get 10-12 balls all day coming to us. If you get more balls coming to you, then you are always more focused. If you have to adjust to the bounce you, have to get up a little early and it went well. It is a basic. I have been seeing and learning this from childhood that you have to get up with the bounce of ball. But on this track (Colombo) there was more bounce so I changed a bit to get up a fraction earlier.
I enjoy keeping to Ashwin-Jadeja on such wickets. The wicket had some spots where the ball was getting more bounce, almost like a bouncer off spinners as well. I was getting up early for the bounce, but pacers weren’t bouncing it as much. Hardik or Shami, they were using slower balls and cutters, so I was standing up so that edge could carry but they didn’t come apart from that inner edge off Kusal Mendis. We work and prepare differently with R Sridhar for such pitches.
His best catches in Tests
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. The Mathews catch just stuck. I was lucky. It could have gone over Ajinkya Rahane but I was lucky it got stuck. Steve O’Keefe in Pune (2015), AB de Villers in Bangalore (2015), and Mathew Wade in Bangalore (2017), I think they are my best catches in Test cricket.
On his batting
Team management sets the batting order, whether no. 6 or 7, whatever they decide we have to apply ourselves accordingly. They see who can bat better with the lower order and adapt and they want to extend the batting line up also by sending Ashwin ahead and holding me back. Whether I bat at 6, 7 or 8, it doesn’t matter. If the ball is to be hit, I will hit it. But we have to take the situation into consideration.
How the team takes DRS calls
Virat has always said that whoever is close to the wicket should give input. And bowlers’ individual view too — do the bowlers think the batsman is out or not, 100 per cent sure or not, how much confident is the bowler and the fielders around. So after we tell him all this, he decides and takes the final decision. Sometimes, I have said ‘yes’, but Virat has not taken DRS and it has also happened that I have said no but he has taken the review. So plus-minus happens but we decide on DRS as a team. But later, Virat doesn’t say why did you take the DRS or did not take DRS.
