Sunrisers Hyderabad wicketkeeper batsman Wriddhiman Saha hasn’t been able to find a permanent spot in the Team India line-up through his career. Saha made his India debut more than 10 years back in 2010 in both Tests and ODIs but his career has always been spent playing second fiddle – first to MS Dhoni and now to Rishabh Pant.
Both Dhoni and Pant are in fact captain of their respective Indian Premier League (IPL) sides – Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals. Dhoni’s CSK will be up against SRH next in the IPL 2021 on Thursday (September 30) evening in Sharjah.
Over the course of the last 11 years, Saha has managed to appear in only 38 Tests and 9 ODIs for India. Saha’s Test average remains a modest 29.09 although he has three centuries to his name. The early part of his career coincided with Dhoni – who was back then the captain of the Indian side and led India to the T20 and 50-over World Cup apart from the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013.
After Dhoni retired, Saha had the chance to stake first claim to become the wicketkeeper of the Indian side. But the 36-year-old has failed to achieve that. Even in this year’s IPL, Saha has only managed 75 runs with the bat in 5 matches while Pant leads the way for the Capitals with 311 runs in 11 matches with two fifties.
Pant is a permanent fixure for India now in all three formats of the game with an average of 39.71 in Tests – far superior to Saha. Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar believes that Pant could be vice-captain material for Team India in the future with KL Rahul.
“I would also keep Rishabh Pant in mind because he has been really impressive in the way he has led a star-studded Delhi team and the bowling changes that he has been making in the T20 format, using Nortje and Rabada in such a clever manner that actually shows a street-smart captain, and you always want a street-smart captain who can read situations and act immediately. So yes, Rahul and Pant are the two guys I would look at as vice captains,” Gavaskar was quoted as saying on Star Sports show.
In the end, one could say that Dhoni and Pant have turned out to be villains of Saha’s career.
