Wriddhiman Saha not game for sledging

Colombo: Wriddhiman Saha wears his reticence like a badge of honour and, quite like his predecessor Mahendra Singh Dhoni, doesn’t believe in sledging opposition batsmen as most wicketkeepers are wont to.

“I haven’t seen M.S. Dhoni sledge ever. So it is not compulsory that you have to sledge. Sometimes (in order to unsettle opposition), we can twist things and say like the pitch is poor, or you have played a poor shot. That much is fine,” said Saha, when asked about his take on sledging.

Like many of his contemporaries, his idol is Australian Adam Gilchrist.

“I liked Adam Gilchrist from childhood — both his batting and keeping style. I think of him as an ideal ‘keeper. There are other wicketkeepers like Mark Boucher and Ian Healy. They were also good. But Adam Gilchrist is my favourite,” said Saha.

He loves being under the radar and is happy when his performance makes an impact in result. “My childhood coach Jayanta Bhowmick used to tell me that if I do well then automatically your name will be prominent in selection circles. He told me not to play for myself but for the team whenever you get even small opportunity keep contributing to the team’s cause. I have tried to do that only. Even now I am only trying to do well for the team and if my contribution is there I will be very satisfied,” he added.

He was blissfully unaware that third Test against Sri Lanka will be his 100th first-class game. “I have just being told that this is my 100th first-class match. I didn’t know. It is a milestone but I will try playing as long as possible,” he said.

Coming from North Bengal’s Siliguri, once the cradle of state’s table tennis, Saha was an outsider when he shifted base to Kolkata. He used to play for Shambazar Club and then for Kalighat in the first division league, stay in a shack in Central Kolkata’s Koley Market with other club cricketers.

“Coming from Siliguri, it was tough. When you come from outside the city it is tough because you have to work out accommodation, find out a good club and then think about gettinhg opportunities. After all these, comes the performance,” the 32-year-old recollected his journey.

“My aim was to keep performing consistently in my keeping and batting. I was doing that so I got selected for Bengal and then got a national call-up.”

On the match, he was asked about a clean sweep, Saha said: “We haven’t thought about 3-0. We believe in match by match process. We are leading 2-0 and in the next match, the aim is to produce a similar performance,” he signed off.

Keeping on pitches that offer turn and bounce makes the job of a stumper challenging but for Saha it becomes more enjoyable when Ravindra Jadeja and R. Aswhin bowl on such wickets.

Ashwin and Jadeja exploited the spin-friendly conditions to torment the Sri Lankans in the second Test, which India won by an innings and 53 runs. “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 said.