Sourav Ganguly names Wriddhiman Saha as India’s best wicketkeeper in last decade

Nursing a shoulder injury, the Bengal wicketkeeper has been out of the Indian Test team for last 11 months now. The 34-year-old gloveman is undergoing rehab after his shoulder surgery and aims to return to domestic cricket in next month. Former India skipper and the CAB president said that Saha is the best in the business when it comes to keeping wickets during a book launch ceremony in Kolkata.

"He's out of the team for about a year now but I think in the last five to 10 years, he has been India's best gloveman. Hope he recovers soon," Ganguly said, reported PTI.

"Injury is not in your hands. Wicketkeeper has to dive and he got injured while diving. It takes a certain time to recover. The faster he recovers, the better it is." 

It was the launch ceremony of sports fiction ‘Wiki’ by journalist Gautam Bhatacharya and Saha also attended the function and wished to get fit and return to competitive cricket.

Speaking at the event, the 34-year-old cricketer said, “I am feeling much better now. I hope to be back in action by mid-December. I am preparing and training accordingly. Hope my body recovers in time and I’m fit to play (Ranji Trophy). I’ve started net sessions but I am yet to get match-fit.”

Saha has struggled a lot with his fitness in 2018 as he first went out of the team because of a hamstring injury in the first Test of the year against South Africa in Cape Town. He had injured his thumb during the Indian Premier League which resulted in him missing the only Test against Afghanistan in June. It was then diagnosed that the Bengal cricketer is struggling with a more serious injury - posterosuperior labral tear and had to undergo a surgery in the UK.

Saha has played 32 Test matches and scored 1164 runs including three hundreds in his international career so far. The Indian selectors have picked Rishabh Pant as the regular wicketkeeper with Parthiv Patel as his back-up for the upcoming Test series in Australia.