Why Selection of Wriddhiman Saha in India’s Test Squad For Tour of West Indies Makes No Sense

With Rishabh Pant scoring hefty amount of runs in India's last test series in England and Australia, the veteran Wriddhiman Saha's case only gets tougher in the Carribeans.

Announcing the Indian team for the West Indies tour, BCCI chief selector M.S.K. Prasad, announcing the Indian team for the West Indies tour, made it clear that Rishabh Pant will be the first choice wicket-keeper across all the formats. However, he raised a few doubts by bringing in Wriddhiman Saha into the test squad.

Following his injury, Saha was recalled into the team after a gap of more than a year since suffering an injury during the South Africa tour in 2018. It was unclear as to why the old warhorse was picked up if the selectors had made their mind of Pant being the first-choice wicketkeeper. Also, with Sridhar Bharat’s heroics in the domestic circuit and in India A colours, one could argue why was he not picked as the other wicket-keeper.

“We have an unwritten norm when a senior cricketer is injured, he should get a comeback opportunity. That’s what we have given to Saha,” clarified Prasad at the press conference while naming the squads. Despite awarding him a comeback opportunity, Saha is unlikely to play a match against the Jason Holder-led side. As Patel further added that Saha will only come into the picture when Pant is unavailable or the team management decides to rest the young wicket-keeper. With Pant scoring hefty amount of runs in India’s last test series in England and Australia, the veteran glove-worker’s case only gets tougher in the Carribeans.

With this call-up, Wriddhiman Saga is all set to return to the Indian dressing room after a gap of 14 test matches. Saha first suffered an injury in hamstring during India’s 2018 Cape Town test against South Africa which later ruled him out of the entire series. Then during 2018 IPL the wicket-keeper injured his thumb before getting under the knives of surgeons for a shoulder injury in later part of that year.