Indian cricketer in focus: Wriddhiman Saha - waiting in the wings

Wriddhiman Saha with the Duleep Trophy in 2012

Not many cricket fans have heard of a quaint little hamlet called Shaktigarh, nestled in the crook of the beautiful city of Siliguri – a transit point for air, road and rail traffic to the north-eastern states.

The gentle Mahananda river caresses both as it continues on its journey around the Himalayan foothills. Shaktigarh, for most, is a developing hub of sporting activity; many of India’s Kho-Kho players have trained on its grounds.

Cricket made its mark too here, and the city gave the sport their son-of-the-soil, a wiry, plucky lad by the name of Wriddhiman Prasanta Saha.

Now comes the obvious question: Wriddhiman who?

Born on 24 October 1984, Wriddhiman moved quickly through the youth ranks in the hierarchy of Indian cricket, having played as a wicket-keeper batsman for the Under-19 team.

He was drafted into the Bengal Ranji side after veteran player and former India wicket-keeper Deep Dasgupta joined the rebel Indian Cricket League. Making his one-day debut in the Ranji Trophy during the 2006-07 season, Saha was out for a duck in his debut innings. He played three more one-dayers for East Zone in the Deodhar Trophy without too much success, although he did perform reasonably well behind the stumps.

His breakthrough season came in 2007-08, when he debuted for Bengal in the four-day version of the Ranji Trophy. Playing against a formidable Hyderabad side, Wriddhiman smashed a magnificent, unbeaten 111, becoming the 15th Bengal player to score a hundred on Ranji debut. Later in the season, he made it to the East Zone squad for the Duleep Trophy.

On the strength of his domestic performances, the Shaktigarh lad was selected by the Kolkata Knight Riders for the inaugural IPL season. Saha got a fair number of games, and showed his batting prowess as well as his athleticism behind the stumps – becoming one of the mainstays in the line up.

After a lacklustre showing in the 2009 and 2010 editions, Wriddhiman signed with the Chennai Super Kings in 2011 and played some scintillating knocks to steer the Men in Yellow to their second consecutive IPL title.

His exploits did not go unnoticed by the selectors. They drafted him into the Test squad for the home series against South Africa in place of the more stylish Dinesh Karthik. The announcement was met with raised eyebrows, despite the fact that Saha had been picked as a reserve keeper. However, injuries to both VVS Laxman and reserve batsman Rohit Sharma paved the way for the Bengal player to make his Test debut.

Despite a watchful 36 in the second innings, he couldn’t prevent a heavy defeat for his side, and was dropped for the rest of the series. He subsequently played in the fourth Test of the 2012 Border-Gavaskar Trophy when Dhoni was banned for a slow over rate; India ended up losing that game and the series 0-4.