Wriddhiman Saha revels in keeping wickets to Indian spinners on rank-turners

What's the story?

While the job of the wicketkeeper can become quite difficult on surfaces such as the one used in the Colombo Test recently, India's Wriddhiman Saha claimed that it is a challenge he was always looking forward to.

Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja starred in India's 304-run victory in the second Test against Sri Lanka helping the visitors clinch the three-match series 2-0 in their favour with a match to go and though the hosts struggled to keep away the Indian spin duo, Saha was alert behind the stumps with a couple of brilliant catches to his name.

Speaking at a press conference ahead of the third Test which begins at Pallekele on August 12, Saha spoke of the buzz he feels when he keeps wickets on challenging surfaces.

"I enjoy keeping to Ashwin-Jadeja on such wickets. If a lot of balls come to the keeper it is good, otherwise, we only get 10-12 balls all day coming to us," he said. "If you get more balls coming to you then you are always more focused."

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Saha's stunning catches to dismiss Kusal Mendis and Angelo Mathews helped India finish off the Sri Lankan fightback in the second innings and drew praise from Indian skipper Virat Kohli who described Saha as the best wicketkeeper in the world at the moment.

The match saw India post a mammoth total of 622 in their first innings before bowling out the hosts for just 183 in their first innings. Asked to follow on by Kohli, Sri Lanka fared much better with 386 runs second time around, it was not enough to prevent an innings defeat and thereby the series.

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The details

Sri Lankan skipper Dinesh Chandimal had expressed his disappointment with his spinners for failing to exploit the spin-friendly surface - something the Indian duo of Ashwin and Jadeja managed to perfection.

Saha admitted that he found the surface unpredictable at times as the odd ball was bouncing off the track while a few kept low. He admitted though that growing up on Indian surfaces which generally offer much assistance to the spinners has helped him improve his technique over the years.

Saha added that he devotes special attention to keeping on such surfaces with the fielding coach of the Indian cricket team, R Sridhar.

While the catches of Mendis and Mathews drew big praise for Saha, the 32-year-old didn't find either of the catches worthy of being among his best three catches so far in his Test career.

According to Saha, his best three catches have been of Steve O'Keefe in Pune (2015), AB de Villers in Bangalore (2015), and Mathew Wade in Bangalore (2017).

Video

You can two of those three catches that Saha mentioned as his Top 3 in the video below.

Author's take

After MS Dhoni's shock retirement from Test cricket, Wriddhiman Saha, and Naman Ojha were almost level with their chances of being India's next Test wicketkeeper.

However, Saha has well and truly established himself as the man for the job with his brilliant work behind the stumps as well as his contributions with the bat and Kohli's words after the Colombo Test proves how highly he is rated by the team management.