Wriddhiman Saha ruled out of Afghanistan Test, Dinesh Karthik named replacement

Wriddhiman Saha has been ruled out of the one-off test against Afghanistan due to a thumb injury that he sustained during the qualifier 2 against KKR.

Dinesh Karthik has been announced as the replacement and will return to the test circuit after a gap of 8 long years.

“He was under observation by the medical staff of the BCCI and the management has decided to give him adequate rest before the start of the England Test series. Saha’s recovery period is expected to be around five to six weeks.” a BCCI report said.

Saha has been India’s first choice wicketkeeper ever since the departure of MS Dhoni and has been very safe with the gloves behind the stumps. However, Saha’s batting credentials are a little questionable at the moment and hence India have been on the lookout for a better wicketkeeper-batsman.

Dinesh Karthik’s meteoric rise in the past 12 months has given the Indian cricket fan a lot of hope.

For long now Karthik has been knocking on the ‘Indian team door’ but with MS Dhoni in the side, he never really had a chance of making it to the squad.

However, he has worked really hard on his batting and has made it to the Indian limited overs side purely as a batsman.

And his success with the Indian team paved a way for the KKR captaincy role this season.

A successful season with KKR combined with his success in that India shirt has helped him earn a test call back, despite not being in the test foray for sometime now.

DK was the third choice keeper up until now, with Parthiv being preferred over him.

Will DK prove to be India’s long-term Test wicketkeeper?