India wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha has backed his junior stumper Rishabh Pant to be the first-choice keeper for the Indian team on the upcoming tour of England, where India will play New Zealand in the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) and five Tests against England.
Wriddhiman Saha, because of his better keeping abilities, pipped the likes of Parthiv Patel, Dinesh Karthik, and Rishabh Pant to emerge as the first choice early on. But injuries hampered his career and Rishabh Pant and his attractive batting leapfrogged him as the no.1 keeper in the Indian team.
Pant has been on a golden run in Test cricket, first obliterating Australia in their own backyard and then hammering England in India, scoring his third Test century in the process.
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Now it seems, Saha might be relegated to the second-choice keeper in England as Pant might be chosen over him, and realizing the reality, Saha has backed Pant to start in the playing XI against New Zealand and England.
“Rishabh Pant played the last few matches of the World Test Championship, he’s done well and he should be our first-choice keeper in England. I would just wait, and if any opportunity arises, I will give my best. I will keep practicing for that one chance,” Saha told Sportskeeda.
Saha further said that he continues to remain in the same positive mind frame whether he is getting a chance to perform or not.
“I try to be the same irrespective of the situation. Whether I am performing or no, I don’t see any change in myself, no idea if others around me spot anything different. We can only try to perform – sometimes it clicks, sometimes it doesn’t – and the management takes the call based on all these parameters.
Practice remains the same, irrespective of whether I am playing or not. I always try to improve, but yes, there is a huge gulf between a practice session and a professional match. It ultimately boils down to who delivers on the bigger stage,” he said.
BCCI has added Andhra keeper KS Bharat in the Indian squad for the England tour as a backup for Saha who contracted COVID-19 during the IPL 2021.
On being asked about the same, Saha said: “I didn’t have COVID-19 during the last series but KS Bharat was still with the team. So what do you say then? Now that I contracted the infection, people are labeling him as my ‘cover’. But I feel they have picked a third keeper bearing in mind the risk outside.
As we saw, anybody can get the infection from anywhere and two keepers are anyway a must these days. So if one keeper falls sick by any chance, then we will be in a spot of bother. I think that’s the reason why they have decided to travel with the three of us.”
(Sportskeeda inputs)
