'Saha is our present, Pant is our future' - Team India fielding coach R Sridhar

The Indian team decimated South Africa 3-0 in the three-match Test series at home recently and with that earned 240 points in the ICC Test Championship with 5 wins in 5 matches so far. The series saw the return of Wriddhiman Saha in the team after more than 20 months of injury break and performed extraordinarily well behind the stumps.

However, his inclusion in all the three Tests sparked debate amongst the cricket fraternity because it came at the expense of Rishabh Pant, who had been doing amazingly well in Tests since his debut in England, scoring tons in England and Australia, while making a couple of 92s against West Indies at home. His exploits with the bat hid his shortcomings with the gloves behind the stump.

And though he has started to work on them, Kohli and co. decided to go with the best keeper in the world, Saha in home conditions. They wanted someone with better skills with the gloves on Indian pitches and Pant’s faults during the West Indies Tests meant that Saha got the nod ahead of him. Indian fielding coach R Sridhar however, said that it is unfair for the two to be compared.

‘It’s unfair to compare,’ feels R Sridhar

“It’s unfair to compare the two as both Saha and Rishabh have their strengths. One is young, while the other is experienced. Rishabh is our future and Saha is our present and both are doing brilliantly,” Sridhar was quoted as saying by Times of India. Saha injured his shoulder during the South Africa tour in 2018 and then injured his finger in IPL that year, losing 22 months of his career, as he underwent surgery.

“No, there were no concerns at all. He was easing into the rigors of international cricket during the West Indies series. He had also played a few games for India ‘A’ before that. Once we were playing in India, we brought back Saha. He is our best wicketkeeper and his skills were for all to see during the India-South Africa series,” Sridhar said about Saha’s return into the team.

Saha upheld his reputation as the best keeper in the world, with two brilliant catches in the series. He took a diving one-handed catch to remove Theunis de Bruyn and then took a great juggling catch of Faf du Plessis in the Pune Test.

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