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Journalism of Courage
The first question that Rahul Dravid faced at the post-match presser after India’s T20 series win was on Wridhhiman Saha. The head coach reacted with sarcasm before going into the crux of the matter.
“Thanks for congratulating us for winning this T20 series,” Dravid said before commenting: “I’m actually not hurt at all, because I have deep respect for Wridhhiman Saha and his achievements, his contribution to Indian cricket. My conversation with him actually came from that place. I think he deserved honesty and he deserved clarity. These are conversations I constantly have with players. I don’t expect players to always like messages or to agree with everything that I have to say about them. That’s not how it works.”
India secured back-to-back clean-sweeps in the limited-overs series against the West Indies, but over the last 24 hours, since the Test squad announcement for the upcoming two matches against Sri Lanka, Saha’s exclusion has become a major talking point. The wicketkeeper-batsman told this paper how he had received assurance from BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and also his conversations with Dravid and chief selector Chetan Sharma.
Dravid agreed that it was a difficult conversation, which he needed to have with Saha to offer clarity and honesty.
“When you have difficult conversations with people, you don’t expect them to always agree with you. But that doesn’t mean you brush it under the carpet and don’t have the conversations. I truly believe in having those conversations before every playing eleven is picked. Even now, either me or Rohit will speak to the guys who aren’t playing and be open to answer questions why they aren’t playing. So, I’m not hurt by it. I think it’s natural for players at times to get upset and feel hurt. But I feel that Wridhhi, because of the respect I have for him, deserved clarity and honesty. That’s what I was just trying to convey.”
India’s Test assignments this year are limited to two home games against Sri Lanka and a postponed Test from the last year in England as of now. And the team management and the selectors thought they would rather groom a younger wicketkeeper in KS Bharat as Rishabh Pant’s back-up.
“With Rishabh Pant having established himself as our No. 1 choice wicketkeeper, the idea was to say that we were looking to groom a younger wicketkeeper with only three Test matches this year and that was it. The easiest thing for me is to not having these conversations, but that’s not who I’m. That’s not what I’m going to do. I don’t expect them to like it or like me, but at some stage, I hope they will at least respect the fact that I will be able to front up and have these conversations with them,” Dravid said.
Saha, 37, lost his place to Pant but was staying in the team as the second-choice gloveman. In the home series against New Zealand, where Pant was rested, Saha played two Tests and after scoring a game-saving 61, braving a neck injury, in the second innings at Kanpur, he said that he received a Whatsapp message from Ganguly that had mentioned: As long as I’m here (helming the BCCI), you would be in the team’.
The ‘keeper-batsman also told this paper that at the end of the South Africa tour, Dravid told him to have a rethink on his career, with the Indian team looking at the future. Saha took it as an indirect message to call time on his career.
A phone conversation with Sharma followed, where according to Saha, the chief selector told him that he wouldn’t be considered going ahead and the exclusion wasn’t only for the two Tests against Sri Lanka.
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