IND vs SL 2017: Favourable Conditions Determine The Batting Slots, Says Wriddhiman Saha

Nov 22, 2017 at 6:21 PM

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IND vs SL 2017: Favourable Conditions Determine The Batting Slots, Says Wriddhiman Saha

With the Eden Gardens turning out to be a nightmare for batsmen during the just-concluded first Test against Sri Lanka, it was quite baffling to see Ravichandran Ashwin being preferred over specialist batsman Wriddhiman Saha. Suranga Lakmal’s fine spell had India reeling at 30 for 4, but instead of sending in Saha at number six to arrest the slide, Ashwin was sent in.

While considering Ashwin’s performance in recent times, one cannot underestimate his batting abilities but on a pitch where even the likes of Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane failed to put up a good performance, sending in Ashwin ahead of Saha raised a lot of eyebrows. Even in the second innings, when India had lost KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane early on the final day of the game, Saha was sent in to bat after Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

However, Saha is not bothered about his unsettled batting order and insisted that the team will rotate the players in the batting order depending on the strength of the opposition bowlers.

“It’s not that I always bat at No 7 (or No 8) as I have batted at No 6 also. We (along with Ashwin and Jadeja) are being rotated as batting position depends on the strength of the opposition bowlers,” he said ahead of the second Test at Nagpur.

Ashwin was preferred over Saha in both the innings (Credits: AFP)

“Favourable conditions determine the slots whether it is Nos 6, 7 or 8. It can be any position as per the team management’s call,” he added.

The wicketkeeper-batsman further insisted that India would have won the first Test if they had been provided with some more overs. After setting an improbable target of 231, India only had a little over one session to a bowl and although it looked like the game would end in a tame draw, Virat Kohli & Co. made a match out of it. The hosts had reduced the Islanders to 75 for 7 before bad light rescued the visitors.

“The team morale was fantastic even though we couldn’t bat as per expectation in the first innings. But we made a good comeback in the second innings. Shikhar, Rahul and Virat batted well and when you get them seven down for less than 100, it automatically boosts your morale. May be with a bit more time at our disposal, we could have won,” he lamented.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar starred with the ball for the hosts at the Eden Gardens (Credits: BCCI)

“We tried hard but initially if we could have got the first few decisions quickly, it could have been different. But time was also a constraint as we first wanted to be safe and set a score that was unattainable and then attack. That was our gameplan so that bowlers would go all out,” he added.

Virat Kohli’s century had guided India to a safe total (Credits: BCCI)

Saha also said that the team is still not overthinking about the challenging tour of South Africa, set to start in January next year.

“I have always believed in match by match preparation. Yes, SA series is at the back of our minds but when you win a Test match, you take that confidence into the next game and that’s what we are trying to do,” he concluded.

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