Former Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Tom Moody believes the wicketkeeper plays a much more important role in T20 cricket if one or more mystery spinners are part of the side.
Moody was working with SRH when they took Wridhhiman Saha on board, a decision which was taken to make Rashid Khan even more lethal. Explaining Saha’s signing, who was signed up by the franchise in 2018, a year after Rashid’s recruitment, Moody termed the India wicketkeeper “one of the best glovemen in world cricket” and also an underestimated limited-over batsman.
“I think it becomes critical if you have got specialist spinners like that,” he said. “I think [in case of] your traditional finger spinners, not so much but when you have unique spinners, like Rashid Khan or Sunil Narine, Mujeeb [Ur Rahman], most sort of unique type spin bowlers, who are very hard to read.
A hat-trick for Rashid Khan in #BBL09
Do we love him or do we love him😍pic.twitter.com/nDi5bFW7Uo
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) January 8, 2020
“If you have invested an enormous amount of money and expectation in the 24 balls that they are going to produce in a 20-over game, and if you don’t have the necessary support to take advantages of those opportunities when they are presented, you are defeating the purpose of having that person in your side to begin with.
“Generally, those bowlers are going to ball key overs against key opposition and if that key opposition do present a little stumping chance or a little nick that’s just bounced a bit or kept low and your keeper is missing those chances, how are you expecting to win those games?
Who, in your opinion, should be India’s first-choice wicketkeeper in Tests and limited-overs? pic.twitter.com/qYt2cI6D69
— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) July 2, 2020
“That was mainly the logic behind Saha, we thought that he was, by far, the best gloveman available. And to me, he still is probably one of the best glovemen going around in world cricket. I think a lot of people underestimate his quality as a batsman.
“I don’t think he fulfilled, what he would have thought was an acceptable level with the bat over the time he was with the Sunrisers but I think he is underestimated as a one-day player, purely because he doesn’t play that power game that a lot of players like a Pant can play or a Dhoni can play, and a KL Rahul can play, obviously when he has got gloves on.”
