Ajay Ratra to help out Wriddhiman Saha

Ratra has confirmed that he has started working with Saha from Saturday and the programme will continue till February 10.

The 34-year-old Saha has been out of action for nearly a year and has been nursing a shoulder injury under the watchful eyes of trainers and the physios at the NCA.

The National Cricket Academy (NCA) has called up former India wicketkeeper, Ajay Ratra, to help out India’s Test stumper, Wriddhiman Saha, who has been undergoing rehab for nearly six months now.

When contacted by  Sportstar , Ratra--who is also an NCA coach--confirmed that he has indeed started working with Saha from Saturday and the programme will continue till February 10.

The 34-year-old Saha has been out of action for nearly a year and has been nursing a shoulder injury under the watchful eyes of trainers and the physios at the NCA. But he still hasn’t recovered completely and it has been learned that Ratra will assess Saha’s fitness levels and will also help him out with the wicket-keeping drills--glovework, footwork and diving skills.

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A few weeks ago, there were reports that Saha wanted to train under former India international, Vijay Yadav, but the BCCI apparently rejected the idea, asking him to train under Kiran More instead. Saha, however, had taken to social media to rubbish such claims.

India’s top Test stumper underwent a surgery for a posterosuperior labral tear in Manchester last year under the supervision of the BCCI medical team, and has been working hard to return to the national team ever since. But with slow recovery, things have worsened for Saha as he also missed out on the Vijay Hazare Trophy and the Ranji Trophy.

Desperate to return to the scheme of things, he had taken a few suggestions from Ratra a few months ago when the latter had visited the NCA with India’s U-19 team.