Summary:
Kanpur, Nov 28 (PTI) Wriddhiman Saha is an "ideal team man" who can always be relied to do the "tough job" but unfortunately he will have to play the second fiddle when India"s number one keeper-batter Rishabh Pant gets back from break, batting coach Vikra Rathour said on Sunday.
Saha, the oldest member of the current Indian set-up at 37, is playing his 39th Test in 11 years since his debut.
His first five years after debut went as legendary Mahendra Singh Dhoni"s understudy and even if it sounds crude, he is now a back-up for 24-year-old Pant.
On Sunday, with his Test career on line, Saha battled hard with a stiff-neck for his gutsy 61 not out after Shreyas Iyer laid the platform with an attractive 65.
"He had a really, really stiff neck and knowing Saha who is an ideal team man, he is going to do whatever is required," batting coach Rathour waxed eloquent about the veteran keeper, who shared two fifty-plus stands with Iyer and Axar Patel.
"He would do the tough things for the team and he played an extremely important knock at the stage the team was at that point." Saha is a quiet person, someone who is not known to be too expressive but the teams knows that the "plod and grind effort" will come from the gritty man, who hails from North Bengal city of Siliguri.