Not hurt at all, have deep respect for him – Rahul Dravid on Wriddhiman Saha

India’s head coach Rahul Dravid wanted to provide clarity to Wriddhiman Saha on his future and said that he is not hurt at all by the wicket-keeper’s comments.

Saha in an interview with ESPN Cricinfo stated that Dravid told him to contemplate retirement whereas BCCI boss Sourav Ganguly said he doesn’t need to worry about his place in the team as long as he is at the helm after the right-hander scored a gutsy fifty against New Zealand at Kanpur despite battling back spasms.

Dravid admitted that he has huge respect for Wriddhiman Saha’s contribution to Indian cricket. But as there will be only three Test matches for India in 2022 and as Rishabh Pant has established himself as the first-choice wicket-keeper in the red-ball format, team management and selectors want to groom a young keeper and thus KS Bharat was named as Pant’s backup while Saha was dropped.

Dravid added that it is easy for him to not have these difficult conversations with the players but that’s not who he is and he wants to provide clarity to the players on why they aren’t playing. The head coach also added that the players may not like what he has to say but they should be given the reasons for their ouster.

“I’m not hurt at all,” Dravid said. “I have a deep respect for Wriddhiman Saha and his achievements and contributions to Indian cricket. My conversation with him actually came from that place, from my respect for him. He deserved honesty and clarity. I didn’t want him to hear about it from the media.

“These are conversations I constantly have with players. I’m not hurt about it at all because I don’t expect players to always like all the messages or agree with everything I have to say about them. That’s not how it works. When you have difficult conversations with people – sometimes you have to have them with players – you don’t always expect them to agree with you or like you, but that doesn’t mean you brush it under the carpet and don’t have the conversations.”

Dravid explained that he and captain Rohit Sharma always try to have conversations with the players who are not picked in the final XI of the team.

“Before every playing XI is picked, even now, either me or Rohit will speak to the guys not playing and are open to answer questions on why they are not playing and what are the reasons a particular XI might play,” Dravid said. “It’s natural for players at times to get upset and feel hurt, but I just feel that because of the respect I have for them, my team deserved clarity and honesty, and that’s all I was trying to convey.”

Along with Saha, Ishant Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, and Cheteshwar Pujara were also dropped from India’s Test squad for the series against Sri Lanka.