So how long is the rope for Saha?

[Laaloo]

Whatever happened to Naman ojha? I would take him over pp. 

[abc]

Also re the beauty by @Forever Indian (don't want to keep quoting the actual post because of the gifs and the space they potentially take up): Looking at the first gif, 1st slip was just as far from the keeper as the Dhoni by Parthiv (India tour of ZA, 2018, 2nd test) -- if not further!! A keeper of that calibre is easily worth half to one extra fielder -- see also the "no-man's-land" catches to dismiss de Villiers and Wade (non-existent forward short-leg in both cases) and Kushal Mendis (genuine no-man's-land between leg slip and short leg).

Edited January 15, 2018 by abc
Edited for clarity; added match details to Parthiv's Dhoni for posterity

[vvvslaxman]

Saha is least of our batting problems to begin with. If we are going to depend on keeper even before the match begins then problem lies elsewhere. Gilchrist always considered his batting as a bonus. He was a genius and he clicked. Not everyone has to be like him or even Brendon Mccullum who never reached the heights of Gilly with bat.  He had one or 2 good years. For the moment treat his runs as bonus. You got Pandya, Ashwin, Bhuvi. They will cover whatever the deficiencies Saha has. Eventually he will come around. When the problem lies in top and middle order why focus on batting skills of lower order.

[CG]

Saha is least of our batting problems to begin with. If we are going to depend on keeper even before the match begins then problem lies elsewhere. Gilchrist always considered his batting as a bonus. He was a genius and he clicked. Not everyone has to be like him or even Brendon Mccullum who never reached the heights of Gilly with bat.  He had one or 2 good years. For the moment treat his runs as bonus. You got Pandya, Ashwin, Bhuvi. They will cover whatever the deficiencies Saha has. Eventually he will come around. When the problem lies in top and middle order why focus on batting skills of lower order.

It's mostly Dhoni fans who target Saha.Any sane person will know how valuable a keeper is in test specially with our spinners.

[New guy]

34 minutes ago, jusarrived said:

Parthiv is crap means , we need to persist with Saha ? 

Saha is a once in generation keeper. He is also a fairly decent batsman and not at all a failure as people are saying here

[Straight Drive]

23 minutes ago, vvvslaxman said:

Saha is least of our batting problems to begin with. If we are going to depend on keeper even before the match begins then problem lies elsewhere. Gilchrist always considered his batting as a bonus. He was a genius and he clicked. Not everyone has to be like him or even Brendon Mccullum who never reached the heights of Gilly with bat.  He had one or 2 good years. For the moment treat his runs as bonus. You got Pandya, Ashwin, Bhuvi. They will cover whatever the deficiencies Saha has. Eventually he will come around. When the problem lies in top and middle order why focus on batting skills of lower order.

The problem lies with the bits and pieces culture. That is how guys like Parthiv will get into the team. It gets cultivated more because the specialist batters or bowlers do not do their jobs. Because our batter do not score enough runs overseas we start expecting runs from Ashwin, Shami, Bhuvi, Ishant and Jasprit. Everyone will blame our bowlers not staying with Virat for long but this situation arises because the specialist batters are shifting their workload on to the bowlers. Have our specialist batsmen needed to bowl any part time overs in this series . No. They have handled the bowling job brilliantly in both tests.   

Edited January 15, 2018 by Straight Drive

[Khota]

3 hours ago, vvvslaxman said:

He sure has made great strides. His stride towards left was zero inch lol. He just had to move he could have caught.

I have not seen Saha or Dhoni do crap on the leg side either. 

 

With Saha nothing was going to happen. With Parthiv atleast it shakes the things up.

 

Please be honest and start counting all other catches dropped. I know it will not fit the narrative/agenda.

[New guy]

11 minutes ago, Khota said:

I have not seen Saha or Dhoni do crap on the leg side either. 

 

With Saha nothing was going to happen. With Parthiv atleast it shakes the things up.

 

Please be honest and start counting all other catches dropped. I know it will not fit the narrative/agenda.

Lol Saha is amazing in the leg side, he moves so much he doesn't even need to dive

[Rasgulla]

16 minutes ago, Khota said:

Please be honest and start counting all other catches dropped. I know it will not fit the narrative/agenda

If they don't like someone they ll start picking every single mistake.. Like just arrived said.. Doesn't have to go back to Indian wade.. It's time for DK  or someone else 

[Khota]

7 minutes ago, Rasgulla said:

If they don't like someone they ll start picking every single mistake.. Like just arrived said.. Doesn't have to go back to Indian wade.. It's time for DK  or someone else 

This is agenda driven crap. Not a negative word about Vijay but going after parthiv. Hypocritical attitudes.

[Rasgulla]

Just now, Khota said:

This is agenda driven crap. Not a negative word about Vijay but going after parthiv. Hypocritical attitudes.

He is no angel.. He messed up many as well LOL..This is one of many. This guy is average keeper against spinners but thàt doesn't suit their agenda. Funny how they give stick for Wade for being just a keeper who cant hold bat..but it's different when it gets to Saha LOL 

[Gollum]

Parthiv dropped as many catches in this incomplete test as Saha in his last 17 tests, can't get this out of my head. What was the team management thinking? 

[New guy]

48 minutes ago, Khota said:

This is agenda driven crap. Not a negative word about Vijay but going after parthiv. Hypocritical attitudes.

Did you forget Vijay scored 46 runs in this innings and did not drop any catches?

[jusarrived]

3 hours ago, Gollum said:

Ofc, his value addition to the team will be as good as peak Gilchrist if you factor in his GOAT keeping skills. 

I saw you post somewhere that effectively a catch drop costs not just the batsmens runs but also the partnerhips he builds , which I dont disagree . Similary a good wk bat may not just score 25 runs more than saha , but also build a few partnerships . The difference is india posting 250 or 320 .

Am not vouching for parthiv here , but you are completely ignoring the impact a good wk bat can have to the balance of this side . 

 

[New guy]

1 minute ago, jusarrived said:

I saw you post somewhere that effectively a catch drop costs not just the batsmens runs but also the partnerhips he builds , which I dont disagree . Similary a good wk bat may not just score 25 runs more than saha , but also build a few partnerships . The difference is india posting 250 or 320 .

Am not vouching for parthiv here , but you are completely ignoring the impact a good wk bat can have to the balance of this side . 

 

Why are you blindly repeating Saha is not good with the bat when he has two amazing innings under very difficult circumstances when the team was down and out? What exactly are you basing this "cannot bat" thing on? 

[jusarrived]

3 hours ago, New guy said:

Saha is a once in generation keeper. He is also a fairly decent batsman and not at all a failure as people are saying here

I honestly dont see him more than a no8 , hes a very good keeper for pace bowling ..a 33 year old with no upside . If we want India to be a side which can dominate for next few years , then hes simply not good enough . We seem to be happy with him just cos the other guy dropped catches and he dint . 

[Forever Indian]

If Parthiv is the replacement for Saha, then this is the rope for Saha:

[jusarrived]

4 minutes ago, New guy said:

Why are you blindly repeating Saha is not good with the bat when he has two amazing innings under very difficult circumstances when the team was down and out? What exactly are you basing this "cannot bat" thing on? 

Amazing innings ? Come one lets not exaggerate . Infact cost us a match in Aus .

All of our tailenders have one or two innings especially on Indian conditions . Play bk up the order , am pretty sure with more opportunities he will play few more of those knocks.

 

[Gollum]

3 minutes ago, jusarrived said:

I honestly dont see him more than a no8 , hes a very good keeper for pace bowling ..a 33 year old with no upside . If we want India to be a side which can dominate for next few years , then hes simply not good enough . We seem to be happy with him just cos the other guy dropped catches and he dint . 

Jeff Dujon and Deryck Murray were in the Saha mould, weren't they part of that ATG WI side? Gilchrist is a recent phenomenon, as is Andy Flower. Sanga the keeper was underwhelming with the bat. Boucher again played close to 150 tests and was more or less like Saha. Before Gilly the template was to have a safe keeper rather than a good batsman who could keep, were none of those teams good? Why should we follow the Aussie template, let us create our own template and build a team accordingly. We have so many other things to worry about if we want to become a dominant team, Saha is not a problem that deserves all the scrutiny. In fact because of our weak catching we desperately need a great keeper to minimize the damage. 

 

If we have a good fast bowling A/R in Pandya at no 6, 2 out of Jaddu/Bhuvi/Ash at no 7 and 8 with Saha as no 9 isn't that good enough to become a dominant team? This way we have a long and dangerous tail with the GOAT keeper who makes 1 mistake in 8 innings, what more do you want? Let us build a team based on our strengths/weaknesses rather than trying to imitate the ATG teams of yesteryear. Our present problems are our top 5, team selection and slip catching...Saha should not be a a punching bag just because he is the quiet kid. 

[maniac]

13 minutes ago, jusarrived said:

Amazing innings ? Come one lets not exaggerate . Infact cost us a match in Aus .

All of our tailenders have one or two innings especially on Indian conditions . Play bk up the order , am pretty sure with more opportunities he will play few more of those knocks.

 

A keeper has to be able to keep first...batting is a bonus and Saha is the best keeper in India....you have to be almost a Kohli level bat if you have average keeping skills and go up in the pecking order....Saha can be a no.x1 but doesn’t change the fact that he deserves a shot over everyone else...how difficult is it to understand? In test cricket you can’t afford mistakes because it is

risk free Cricket to begin with.

 

Is this one of your gems like Yuvraj is the best Middle order bat in India in 2017 or you have to be selfish to score 200’s in odi?

Edited January 15, 2018 by maniac