Born October 24, 1984, Shaktigarh

Current age 25 years 105 days

Major teams India, Bengal, India A, Kolkata Knight Riders

Batting style Right-hand bat

Fielding position Wicketkeepe

Wriddhiman Prasanta Saha was drafted into the Bengal Ranji side after regular wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta signed up with the Indian Cricket League. He grabbed the chance with both hands, becoming the 15th Bengal player to score a hundred on Ranji debut. Though he managed only one more fifty in the remaining first-class games of the season, he was signed up by the Kolkata Knight Riders for the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League. He managed 318 runs in five games in the 2009-10 Ranji season and was picked in the squad for the first Test for the home series against South Africa. A last-minute injury to Rohit Sharma handed Saha an unexpected debut in Nagpur - as a batsman

Saha made it through the ranks of the youth system, playing for the Under-19s and the Under-22s team before stepping up to first-class cricket. Saha made his one-day debut in the Ranji Trophy competition of 2006/07, against Assam. While he did not get the chance to perform with the bat during this game, he scored a duck in his debut innings in the following match. As he was nearing the end of his brief run in the Ranji Trophy, he played three one-day games for the East Zone in the Deodhar Trophy.

Saha made his first-class debut in the 2007-08 Ranji Trophy, against Hyderabad he scored 111 not out, becoming the 15th Bengal player to score a hundred on Ranji debut. Saha also made the East Zone team in the Duleep Trophy in the 2007-08 season.

Saha was signed by the Kolkata Knight Riders for the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League although Brendon McCullum and Tatenda Taibu were already part of the team. Despite those two keepers Saha made twelve appearances in the 2008 tournament, making a single half-century in ten innings. The Situation is the same even now (though Morne van Wyk replacing Taibu). He had a good IPL 2


.......Back

Saha and Badrinath debut, South Africa bat
India's poor selection returned to haunt them on the first morning of the series that will decide the No. 1 ranked team in Test cricket. An unfit VVS Laxman, and an early-morning injury to Rohit Sharma, handed a Test debut to Bengal wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha because there was no batsman in the reserves. Even Rohit had been a last-minute addition to the squad because there was a chance that Laxman might lose the fitness race.

MS Dhoni sounded helpless at the toss at having to pick Saha - a first-class average of 35.88 - as a specialist batsman. It meant that India's middle order had three batsmen with only three Tests' experience between them. The two debutants summed up the vagaries of cricket, aided by wonky selection policies: S Badrinath finally got a debut after years and years of hard work and heartbreak in domestic cricket, and Saha - already a surprise selection in the squad - got the cap the first time he came remotely close to the reckoning, and as a batsman.

Just to reinforce that India had got off on the wrong foot, Graeme Smith won the toss and chose to bat on a brown Nagpur pitch that was expected to assist seam bowlers in the first hour, but aid spin later in the Test.

South Africa chose a full-strength XI, with Wayne Parnell picked ahead of Lonwabo Tsotsobe, and Paul Harris replacing Ryan McLaren in the XI that levelled the home series against England with a victory at the Wanderers.

South Africa (probable): 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Ashwell Prince, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 AB de Villiers, 6 JP Duminy, 7 Mark Boucher (wk), 8 Paul Harris, 9 Wayne Parnell, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Morne Morkel.

India (probable): 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 M Vijay, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 S Badrinath, 6 MS Dhoni (capt/wk), 7 Wriddhiman Saha, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Ishant Sharma.