Colombo: Keeping on pitches that offer turn and bounce makes the job of a stumper challenging but for Wriddhiman Saha it becomes more enjoyable when Ravindra Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin bowl on such wickets.
Ashwin and Jadeja exploited the spin-friendly conditions at the SSC Stadium here to torment the Sri Lankans in the second Test, which India won by an innings and 53 runs Sunday.
“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. If you get more balls coming to you then you are always more focused,” Saha told reporters here Monday.
Saha also said that adjusting to bouncy tracks is nothing difficult for him as he has been doing it as a basic since childhood.
“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. At the SSC pitch, however, the bounce was more… so I was getting up a fraction earlier,” he pointed out.
“The wicket had some spots where the ball even off a spinner was spat like a bouncer, but then it happens. As a wicket-keeper I need to be ready for all conditions. We have to make such adjustments. We work and prepare differently with R Sridhar (fielding coach) for such pitches,” he added.
Saha pulled off two stunning catches, one to dismiss Kusal Mendis and the other to get rid of Angelo Mathews in the Sri Lankan second innings. However, he also outlined which other catches he considers his best efforts in Test cricket.
“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 dive and get to the ball. The Mathews’ catch just stuck. I was lucky,” Saha stated with a smile.
“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,” he added.
In the second Test, Saha contributed with a valuable 67 and put on partnerships with Ashwin, Jadeja and Hardik Pandya. However, he made it clear that he has no preferences regarding his batting over. “You will have to bat according to the necessity of the team as well as the situation. Bottomline is wherever you bat No.6, 7 or 8, you have to deliver. Team come first, nothing else matters,” he asserted.
Saha also said that like his predecessor MS Dhoni, he doesn’t believe in sledging the opposition. He also said that he grew up watching Adam Gilchrist and Ian Healy of Australia and Mark Boucher of South Africa. “But for me the favourite has always been Gilchrist. He is the ideal keeper-batsman,” Saha pointed out.
Press Trust of India