Saha almost certain for first ODI against Sri Lanka

Uncertainty over the availability of Wriddhiman Saha, who had a split webbing in his right hand, for the first ODI of the five-match series against Sri Lanka seems to be over as the wicket-keeper batsman looked fit ahead of the opener in Cuttack on Sunday.

The Bengal wicket-keeper, who impressed during this year’s IPL, looked in full flow during a full-fledged Indian training session under stand-in skipper Virat Kohli.

Saha batted for about 15 minutes and looked at ease and later a team official said the wicketkeeper batsman is “available” for the series opener at the Barabati Stadium. Playing for East Zone, Saha split his right hand webbing during the Duleep Trophy semifinal against South as he did not come out to bat in the second innings that ended at 62 for nine, conceding an innings and 118 runs defeat in Lahli.

The 30-year-old has played two Tests and six ODIs for the senior national team in the sporadic chances he has got due to the ever-presence of regular captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Mainly dubbed as a classical wicket-keeper, who is best suited for the longer version, Saha has more than decent statistics in the List A format as a glovesman.

In 90 List A matches so far, he has scored 2,536 runs at a decent average of 43.72 with two hundreds and 18 half-centuries. He has also taken 109 catches and 12 stumpings.

Meanwhile, the Indian cricketers toiled for about three hours this morning and apart from Saha, the highlight of the session was Ravichandran Ashwin who is making a comeback after being ‘rested’ for the India-West Indies series.

India’s frontline spinner for quite some time now, Ashwin was seen all padded up as he was the first to start the proceedings in the batting nets before the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Kohli, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina came in to bat.

Not only did he bat long, Ashwin was seen bowling in tandem with the likes of left-arm spinner Axar Patel and Amit Mishra and was the last man to leave the field.

It was a no-nonsense approach for the Kohli-led young turks who headed straight to the nets after a bit of stretching without opting for a fun football match, normally a feature in India’s net sessions under Dhoni.

Among the bowlers, Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma looked very impressive with great pace and bounce as they bowled in tandem, while the other two pace duo of Varun Aaron and Dhawal Kulkarni too looked good.

It would be interesting to see whether India would be tempted to go for a third seamer on a track that had a bit of green. The Sri Lankans, who arrived in the afternoon, opted for a day’s rest.

Both the teams would train on the eve of the match tomorrow ahead of the stop-gap five-match ODI series which was hastily-planned after the visiting West Indies pulled out midway after playing fourth ODI in Dharmasala because of a pay dispute with their board (WICB).

Apart from Cuttack, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Ranchi and Kolkata would host the other matches of the series from November 2-16.

PTI