India v Australia: Michael Clarke dazzled by Wriddhiman Saha's century

Wriddhiman Saha proved his worth in outstanding fashion on the fourth day of the 3^rd Test match at Ranchi as the wicketkeeper secured a deserving century of his own. His 117 run knock backed Cheteshwar Pujara’s mettlesome double hundred brilliantly, helping India to put up a majestic total of 603. This was the 32-year old’s third century in Test cricket and it is sure to keep him in the international scene for long.

Former Australian captain Michael Clarke has turned out to be a fan of the short wicketkeeper-batsman and has heaped praise on him. The World Cup winning captain feels that Wriddhaman Saha has similar traits to that of legendary Australian wicketkeeper-batsman, Ian Healy. The way Wriddhiman started his inning on the penultimate day of the match, Clarke already knew that the player had big intentions on his mind.

“Yeah, his approach is a bit similar (to that of Healy). He’s a busy player. He was really good yesterday… Just fantastic…

“I was telling Matthew Hayden that Saha’s going to get runs when I saw the way he went about on Saturday itself. He has certainly gone up the ranks,” Clarke, who’s commentating for the official broadcasters, told The Telegraph on the final day of the third Test here at the JSCA International Stadium.

Michael Clarke who once smashed a gigantic 329 run inning against the Indians, was also left speechless by Cheteshwar Pujara, who registered the first double hundred of the series. The batsman faced over 500 balls and stayed on the pitch for an unbelievable 672 minutes.

“Unbelievable… Pujara was simply unbelievable.” Said Clarke on Pujara’s innings. He also commented on Pujara’s batting technique by saying “It’s absolutely brilliant. You don’t need to be flamboyant in Test cricket. You just need to do your job.”, which is scoring runs. And he’s doing so perfectly. That’s it.”

Clarke also applauded the efforts of captain Steve Smith and youngster Matt Renshaw for staying glued to the pitch on the first hour of play. He said “Look, that first hour was really very, very important for Australia. Both of them absolutely stuck to their task,”.