Test career
On 28 January 2010, Saha was included in the Indian Test squad as a reserve wicket-keeper in place of Dinesh Karthik for the upcoming home Test match series against South Africa.
As Saha was a reserve gloveman, he was not expected to play, but 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 his Test debut against South Africa.
He scored a duck in the first innings, but scored 36 in the second innings. In both innings, fast bowler Dale Steyn took his wicket. India lost the Test and Saha was dropped from the squad for the second Test which India subsequently won to level the two-match series.
Saha played in the fourth match of the Border Gavaskar Trophy in January 2012 in place of MS Dhoni, who was banned for slow over rate, where he made 35 runs in the first Test which helped Virat Kohli get his maiden Test Century.
He also toured South Africa in December 2013, New Zealand in February 2014 and England in July 2014 as part of the test squad but did not get a game.
On 9 December 2014, he was selected to play his first test match since January 2012 against Australia, at the same ground where he had played his last match, because MS Dhoni was out with a thumb injury. He made 25 runs in the first inning and 13 runs in the second inning. [3] He also played in the fourth match of the series and made 35 runs.
In 2015, he was selected for India's Tour of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka for test matches. He scored 2 fifties in 2 test matches he played in Sri Lanka. He also played in tests of Gandhi-Mandela Freedom Trophy 2015.
In 2016, he was selected for India's tour of West Indies as a wicket-keeper. [4] In the first test against West Indies, Saha became the third wicket-keeper in Indian cricket history to feature in six dismissals in a test innings. [5] He scored twin fifties at Eden Gardens, his home ground, in October 2016 to get his 1st- ever man of the match award. He was also selected for 5 match Test series against England in India but played only in the 1st and 2nd matches, and was out of the rest of the series due to injury.
He scored his 2nd test hundred against Bangladesh in a one-off test in February 2017.
On 19 March 2017, Saha scored a century at JSCA International Stadium against Australia, making 117 off 233 balls which included 8 fours and 1 six. India were 328/6, which was 123 behind Australia's first innings total of 451 when he came to bat and added 199 for the seventh wicket with Cheteshwar Pujara. [6]
On 8 January 2018, against South Africa Saha became the first wicket-keeper for India to take ten catches in a single Test. [7] Later on he got injured in that series and did not play the final match. India lost that series 2–1. He suffered a hamstring injury in South Africa but still played in the 2018 IPL, which worsened his injury. He was not selected for 5 Test match series in India's tour of England in 2018 due to his injury and he was replaced by Rishabh Pant . Pant's good performances made Saha out of team and he was not selected for India's tour of Australia in 2018–19. Later on, after recovering from injuries, he was part of the India A team that toured West Indies in 2019.
Saha played in the 3 match Test series against South Africa in India in 2019 and took many magical catches. In November 2019, in the second Test against Bangladesh, Saha became the fifth wicket-keeper for India to affect 100 dismissals in Test cricket. [8] In January 2020, Saha was selected for 2 Test Series in New Zealand but did not play any match. In December 2020, he was selected for 4 Test Match series in Australia and played only in the first Test, scoring 9 in the first innings and 4 in the second innings. He was dropped for next match. He substituted Rishabh Pant in the 3rd Innings of 3rd match and helped Navdeep Saini get his first Test wicket. He stayed on the bench for the whole series against England in February–March 2021. He was selected in India's Squad for the WTC Final and India's Tour of England 2021 but did not feature in the playing 11.
In November, 2021, Saha was selected as the first-choice wicket keeper in the two-match test series between India and New Zealand. Despite suffering a neck injury during the first test, Saha scored an unbeaten 61 runs during the second innings of the match, [9] which earned him praise from critics. His 200 from 221 balls in Test cricket vs Eng in 2018 and 148 in 123 balls in ODI vs SL also gave him confidence. His lowest ODI score – 6* (10), in an ODI vs SL in 2014, in the same series added 6 runs to India 404/5, for Rohit hit of 264 (173).
