Saha’s injury throws open debate as to why selectors have not looked beyond tried-and-tested glovemen Parthiv Patel or Dinesh Karthik
Who is a better wicket-keeper between Parthiv Patel and Dinesh Karthik?
This was hotly debated inside the Indian dressing room in 2004, two years before Mahendra Singh Dhoni came into the scene.
Dhoni came, conquered and retired from the longer format three years ago but this debate has refused to die down.
With the third Test between India and South Africa commencing on January 24 at the New Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg, Karthik vs Parthiv would once again be debated by the fans.
If Wriddhiman Saha, India's best Test wicketkeeper, gets injured, then who is the best replacement for him? The names of Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant apart from the two already in the squad come to mind.
Not taking anything away from Saha, he has only a few years left in him as he is already 33 years. Though, Saha lacks flair in batting, he hasn't done that bad either. In 32 Tests so far, the Bengal player has scored 1,164 runs at an average of 30.63 with three centuries and five fifties.
His nearest competitor, Parthiv, has scored 916 runs in 24 Tests at 32.71 and his highest score being 71. The other competitor, Karthik, has scored exactly 1,000 runs in 23 Tests at 27.77 with just a century.
And, they all are in the age group of 32-33 years.
The point to ponder upon here is why have our selectors failed to look beyond these men who are in their thirties?
Dhoni came at a time when cricket world was already witnessing the heroics of Australian great Adam Gilchrist (5,570 runs in 96 matches, avg 47.7) or South African Mark Boucher (5,515 runs in 147 matches). He must have also grown up watching another keeper-batsman in Zimbabwean Andy Flower (4,794 runs in 63 Tests at 51.54).
Dhoni's emergence also coincided with that of two others, New Zealand's Brendon McCullum and Sri Lankan great Kumar Sangakkara. Dhoni's brilliance with bat and his ability to win matches with the bat made Indian selectors to look the other side. Then like any other skipper, which Dhoni was for almost a decade, he never allowed anyone else to grow under his giant stature.
That made Saha, a better keeper than anyone else in India, wait for limited opportunities as and when he got due to injuries to Dhoni. And, when he finally got his due, his achievements with the bat had undermined those behind the stumps and made him look like a poor replacement of Dhoni.
The other one keeper that India tested in shorter formats since 2015 was again the veteran domestic player, Naman Ojha. The only few opportunities that was given to hard-hitter Pant clearly proved that he may well be the answer to Dhoni in coming years. But then these wisemen were probably trying to ensure that Dhoni does not miss out on the 2019 World Cup.
That's why Samson was never tried after just one chance in T20 format.
The biggest loser turned out to be Delhi's Ranji Trophy skipper Pant, who despite scoring the fastest hundred (48 balls) in Ranji against Jharkhand or even hammering a triple hundred (308 runs) at the age of 19 or even scoring the fastest fifty in under-19 cricket, in 18 balls, continued to remain on the 'wait list'.
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