File photo of Wriddhiman Saha (centre).
It has been a prolonged debate about who is the right candidate to keep wickets for India in the longest format of the game since MS Dhoni's retirement from Test cricket in 2014.
Wriddhiman Saha, Rishabh Pant and Parthiv Patel have been often considered for the role but none of them managed to be an outright first choice for the position.
While Saha's wicketkeeping skills and athletism has been widely regarded among the best in the business, his injury-prone career graph had made things unstable.
Pant, on the other hand, is a talent for the future but his batting off late has been a disappointment. Similarly Parthiv has also struggled to be among runs in the longest format.
35-year-old Parthiv, who hasn't earned an Indian call up since 2018 South Africa series, acknowledged that Wriddhiman is the best wicketkeeper batsman India have at the moment and nobody comes close to him in Test format as long as he is fit.
“I have always maintained that Saha is your best wicketkeeper-batsman in Test cricket. There is no comparison with anyone, as long as he is fit,” Parthiv told cricket.com. “As long as he is there, he should be keeping for India in Test cricket – whether you are playing abroad or India – Saha is your guy as long as he is fit.”
While India have lately settled for KL Rahul as the makeshift wicketkeeping option in the limited formats of the game, Parthiv feels it's better not to rush the KXIP captain into keeping in Tests as well.
“That’s a tough call. KL’s glovework is fantastic, there is no doubt about it. Test cricket is completely different," Parthiv said.
“You have got to start ‘keeping in four-day cricket first. It’s not the easiest thing to do. I would give it a long thought before thinking that KL could do the job in all formats. But one-day, T20, definitely KL.”
