Durban, Dec. 25: Lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice. India’s reserve gloveman Wriddhiman Saha donned the white India flannels for the first time against the South Africa in Nagpur earlier this year when V.V.S. Laxman failed to recover from injury and Rohit Sharma, the only reserve specialist batsman in the squad, injured himself playing football in the warm-up on the first morning.
As another batsman could not be flown in on time, Saha was given an unintended debut. The Indians have come well-stocked here, eliminating any chance of a similar incident. So what does a player do when he knows he’s not going to play any role in practice, let alone a Test? He becomes a ball boy!
Hands on hips and his gear neatly packed in a corner of the Kingsmead practice facility, Saha watched as Rahul Dravid and Laxman went about their business at the nets. The only time he’d move was when he the ball went beyond the nets and he’d have to scurry off to fetch the cherry. The job though would have been a lot easier had Cricket South Africa not appointed groundsmen as designated ball-boys, who competed with him for every retrieval!
“It’s one of the things you have to do before getting your chance,” he said with a smile to bunch of journalists at the end of practice while dragging his neatly-packed gear behind him.