Wriddhiman Saha

Some Lesser Known Facts About Wriddhiman Saha

• Wriddhiman’s father played both football and cricket in Siliguri leagues. He was not able to continue his sporting ambitions due to financial problems.

• As a child, Wriddhiman Saha aspired to become an F1 Driver (Car Racer). However, due to his family’s financial problems and lack of awareness of the sport in the country, he had to give up his dream.

• To concentrate more on cricket, Saha gave up on his studies during his college days.

• As a teenager, he started playing cricket with tennis balls, as a medium pacer, and later, he became a wicket-keeper when he started playing with leather balls.

• Saha was once involved in a 417-run stand which, at its time, was the highest partnership for the sixth wicket in the Ranji Trophy and the third-highest in Indian first-class cricket.

• Wriddhiman Saha began his first-class career brightly; becoming only the 15th Bengal player to make a century on debut in the 2007-08 season of Ranji Trophy. He scored an unbeaten knock of 111 runs against Hyderabad.

• Saha made a century on his Ranji debut which earned him an IPL contract in 2008 with Kolkata Knight Riders.

• Saha began his IPL career with The Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008.

• His brilliant performance in the inaugural edition of the IPL won him a spot in the India A squad.

• A strong run in the Ranji Trophy in 2009-10, followed by last-minute injuries to VVS Laxman and Rohit Sharma handed Wriddhiman Saha a surprise Test debut, as a specialist batsman, in the home series against South Africa in February 2010. However, he was out for a duck in the first innings of the match.

• Saha met his wife, Debarati, on the social networking site Orkut, and married her in 2011 after a four-year courtship.

• After playing three seasons with Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, Saha was picked by the Chennai Super Kings in 2011 as a reserve wicketkeeper for MS Dhoni.

• Saha played in the fourth match of the Border Gavaskar Trophy in 2012 as a replacement for Mahendra Singh Dhoni who was banned for slow over rate; he made 35 runs in the match.

• In the 2014 IPL auction, Saha was purchased by the Kings XI Punjab as a specialist wicket-keeper.

• Wriddhiman Saha scored 362 runs at an average of 32.90 and a strike rate of 145.38 in the seventh edition of the IPL. His team KXIP made it to the finals but failed to win the tournament. He also scored a century in the IPL 2014 final vs Kolkata Knight Riders. He made 115 runs from 55 balls including 10 fours and 8 sixes.

  

• Saha became the regular wicket-keeper for India in test cricket after the retirement of Mahendra Singh Dhoni from test cricket in 2014.

• Saha won his first Man of the Match award in October 2016 at Eden Gardens after scoring twin fifties.

• On 19 Match 2017, Saha scored a century against Australia at JSCA International Stadium. He made 117 off 233 balls and added 199 runs for the seventh wicket partnership with Cheteshwar Pujara.

• In 2018, Saha made the record for scoring the fastest century in domestic cricket; he scored 102 runs off just 20 balls at a strike rate of 510.

• After he suffered a hamstring injury in 2018 in the series against South Africa which got worse after playing in the IPL, Saha was dropped from the India tour of England 2018 series and was replaced by Rishabh Pant. After that series, Saha was out of the team due to injury and Rishabh’s place was confirmed in the team.

• In the IPL auction 2018, Saha was bought by the Sunrisers Hyderabad team for the 2019 Indian Premier League. In the 2020 season batting as an opener, he scored 214 runs in 4 matches with a 70+ average including 2 half-centuries for Sunrisers Hyderabad.

  

• In 2021, Saha was named in the Indian cricket team squad for the World Test Championship final and India’s Tour of England series.

• In 2022, Saha came into the limelight when a sports journalist, Boria Majumdar, bullied and threatened him. After investigating the matter, BCCI banned the journalist for two years from interviewing any cricketer.

• Saha’s wife runs a food joint in Kolkata called Puran Dhaka.

• Saha was signed by the Gujarat Titans in the auction for the 2022 Indian Premier League tournament.

  

• In 2022, Saha moved to Tripura after playing for Bengal for 15 years. He switched sides due to an issue with the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB). However, he returned to Bengal after a long conversation with Sourav Ganguly who convinced him to return. He said in an interview,
  

  It was because of Dadi (Ganguly) and my wife that I decided to play this season and retire from Bengal. Otherwise, in 2023 itself, I had made up my mind to call it quits. But Romi and Dadi persuaded me to continue a bit longer,”