Former Indian wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha was one of the best wicket-keepers in Indian domestic cricket. His technique of keeping the spin bowling in the dust bowls and the pacers on green wickets has been excellent. He also had the ability to hit useful contributions that reversed the order. Earlier, the 40-year-old player announced that he is retiring from playing domestic cricket.
Saha admitted that it was Sourav Ganguly who pushed the seasoned goalkeeper to play in this domestic season even though his body was injured. “You can say that it was because of emotional closeness that I would not play this year but Sourav Ganguly and my wife pushed me to play and finish with Bengal after two seasons with Tripura,” he said as quoted by ESPN Cricinfo. In 138 First Class matches, Saha scored 7013 runs at an average of 41.74 which included 14 hundreds and three fifties.
Saha moved to represent Tripura a few seasons ago, however, he returned to Bengal for his farewell season. “I’ve been pushing myself for the past year. “But because of my physical condition and injury, I will not be able to play the whole season,” he said. “That’s why I chose the most important format – Ranji Trophy. It will be difficult [to carry on] but I’ll play and hopefully we’ll get in. If we do that, I will play until the end of the season, if not I will finish at Eden Gardens,” he added.
Despite sounding good as a wicket keeper Saha could not make it to the Indian team regularly due to players like MS Dhoni early in his career and Rishabh Pant later on who had better batting skills. When asked if Saha will consider himself unlucky, he said, “There are too many who did not play despite working hard. Amol Muzumdar, Padmakar Shivalkar sir. I feel lucky and proud to have played 40 Tests for India.”
In 40 Test matches for India Saha scored 1353 runs at an average of 29.71 with three tons and six half centuries.