Angelo Mathews had played a cut; a full-blooded one off Ravindra Jadeja. The extra bounce saw the batsman managing a meaty top edge. Wriddhiman Saha was rising with the ball, eyes on it. His hands went high over his shoulder and the ball stuck in the big gloves. Mathews, almost a decade into top-level cricket, looked stunned. Saha had taken a stunner. It was August this year, at the SSC in Colombo. Jadeja and R Ashwin had collected 30 wickets in India\u2019s 3-0 Test series whitewash. And Saha assisted the spin duo \u2013 also the pacers \u2013 with his world-class \u2018keeping. After the series, the India head coach Ravi Shastri compared the Bengal stumper with the great Bob Taylor.<\/p>\n
The Indian spinners have benefited immensely from Saha\u2019s presence behind the stumps. The 33-year-old will play his 29th Test from Thursday, on an Eden Gardens pitch that will have some extra bounce. Ashwin and Jadeja will once again ask tricky questions but it\u2019s the offie who will present a sterner test because of his variations.<\/p>\n
But Saha is now completely at ease with Ashwin\u2019s bowling. After playing so many Tests together, the two have worked up a fine understanding. \u201cWe have played a lot together. As a wicketkeeper, the longer you keep (against a bowler), the better idea you get. It\u2019s easier to keep against him (Ashwin) now than before,\u201d Saha told reporters on Monday, adding: \u201cAshwin is ahead among the spinners as far as \u2018keeping-difficulty\u2019 is concerned. He has more variations than Jaddu and Kuldeep; so it\u2019s tougher.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saha had given a lowdown of his technique in Sri Lanka, especially about adjusting to the bounce. \u201cIf you have to adjust to the (extra) bounce, you have to get up a little early\u2026 It\u2019s basic. I have been seeing and learning from my childhood that you have to get up with the bounce of the ball. On a track with more bounce, I change a bit to get up a fraction earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n
This Indian team throws up spinners of different varieties \u2013 an off-spinner, a left-arm spinner and a chinaman bowler in Kuldeep Yadav. Saha has a simple approach \u2013 read the hand. \u201cReading the hand is 50 per cent job done. After that, you have to take into account the bounce of the wicket and the turn. The challenge is to catch every ball,\u201d Saha said on Monday.<\/p>\n
As for the pacers, Saha feels Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma are the toughest to keep because \u201cthe ball wobbles after crossing the stumps\u201d.<\/p>\n
At Eden last year, Saha bagged his first Man of the Match award in Tests, contributing immensely with the bat and his \u2018keeping, as India beat New Zealand. He returns to his home ground for a Test against Sri Lanka with his reputation hugely enhanced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Angelo Mathews had played a cut; a full-blooded one off Ravindra Jadeja. The extra bounce saw the batsman managing a meaty top edge. Wriddhiman Saha was rising with the ball, eyes on it. His hands went high over his shoulder and the ball stuck in the big gloves. Mathews, almost a decade into top-level cricket, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10160,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10158\/revisions\/10160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}