India Test wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha is set to take the ‘club’ tournament route to regain his rhythm ahead of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL).
Saha recovered from the upper hamstring tendon injury, which he picked in South Africa, and before leaving for the Sunrisers Hyderabad camp, he will fine-tune his Twenty20 skills in the J.C. Mukherjee Trophy in Kolkata.
“I was fit quite a few days ago, when I returned to Kolkata. The National Cricket Academy (NCA) had called me again for an assessment (earlier this month), but I was back home within five days. The injury took one month to heal but there were stages of recovery. I am leaving for the camp on March 30,” Saha told Sportstar on Friday.
In the interim, he also turned out in a few matches for his employers, CESC. “Those matches helped me get back to the groove.”
Shreevats Goswami, his Bengal counterpart, is also in the Sunrisers squad this season. But in all likelihood, it will be Saha behind the stumps. “That decision isn’t ours. We will have to do what suits the team best. See, ultimately it is cricket, whether I play only as a batsman or a wicketkeeper-batsman. All plans will be clear at the camp, I will do what the team decides,” he added.
The 33-year-old also feels Dinesh Karthik’s whirlwind knock at the Nidahas Trophy final – 29 not out off 8 balls – will be a benchmark for cricketers in the IPL. “It was tough for him as he hadn’t played many balls before. But he started to play his strokes from the first ball he faced. He was confident from the outset. You got to give it to him as all those shots, four or six, were clean hits. His message ‘when it is needed, I can still deliver’ was clear; having that confidence is a must. It will inspire us to perform better in the IPL,” he said.
Saha is no less. During his Kings XI Punjab days, the attacking right-hander unleashed his brutality in 2014, becoming the first batsman to score a hundred – 115 off 55 balls – in an IPL final.
The 55-ball 93, last year, revived the memories.
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