Curious case of Wriddhiman Saha’s WTC Final omission baffles many
IPL had paved the way for Rahane’s Test comeback after more than a year
KOLKATA: Sidelined wicketkeeper-batter Wriddhiman Saha, who had yet another successful IPL stint with consecutive IPL finalists Gujarat Titans, is back in discussion for his omission from the Indian squad for next week’s World Test Championship Final.
Days after former India coach and captain Anil Kumble said the selectors “missed a trick” by not selecting Saha for the WTC Final, his fellow IPL commentator Deep Dasgupta echoed the same views and termed the stumper as one of the “best”.
“He (Saha) is like evergreen man, he is like 38-39, still seems to be one of the best glovesman in the world,” Dasgupta, a former India wicketkeeper turned commentator, told PTI Tuesday. Continuing his incredible record in the IPL Finals, Saha struck 54 off 39 balls to give GT a brisk start.
Saha now has one century and one fifty from three IPL final appearances.
IPL had paved the way for Ajinkya Rahane’s Test comeback after more than a year, but it was not the case for Saha for reasons “other than performance”, Dasgupta remarked.
“Obviously batting wise, he has done his job for his team, something that has been asked him to, and he has does it really well.”
“This is what he always was, he always did. Another really good year. It has got nothing to do with his performance, there were other things,” Dasgupta said referring to Saha’s fallout with BCCI two years back that has led to his downfall. Saha, who last played for India in November 2021 against New Zealand for his 40th Test appearance, had fallen out of favour after Rishabh Pant had become the automatic choice for the wicketkeeper’s slot.
The same was communicated to Saha by the team management who had said they wanted to groom a youngster as Pant’s understudy.
But since then, Saha was critical of then BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and also at the beginning, didn’t have charitable things to say about head coach Rahul Dravid either.
Things, however, have changed drastically after Pant’s unfortunate accident at the start of the year that virtually ruled him out for the entire season, but Saha remained out of favour. Saha should have played Australia series: Dasgupta.