Wriddhiman Saha deserved honesty and clarity: Dravid on decision to drop Saha

One of the biggest tasks for Rahul Dravid as India’s head coach was to oversee the ‘natural transition’ in the batting unit. Acting on the same, the former Karnataka batter took the bold move, of dropping both Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara from the setup, for the series against Sri Lanka. 

Alongside Rahane and Pujara, the squad also saw a notable absentee in Wriddhiman Saha. While Saha expressed his disappointment earlier, Dravid emphasized that his conversation with the 37-year-old came out of respect, and he deserved honesty and clarity. It would be the first time the Men in Blue would be without the veteran keeper, since MS Dhoni’s retirement decision. 

"I'm not hurt at all. I have a deep respect for 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,” Dravid said on Saha’s axe from the Indian Test squad. 

"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,” he added.

Saha expressed his shock earlier via interviews with the media. Responding to that, the Indian head coach stated that he believes in having honest conversations with the players over their role in the setup. 

“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 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,” Dravid emphasized. 

"Before every playing XI is picked, even now, either Rohit or me will speak to the guys not playing, and be open to answering questions on why they are not playing and what are the reasons of a particular XI that might play. 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."

Dravid’s decision of dropping Saha stems from the need for the Indian team to groom the next wicketkeeper. Earlier this year, KS Bharat’s terrific form behind the sticks could very well have made the decision to drop Saha easier. 

"The easiest thing for me is to not have these conversations or not speak to players about it, but that's not who I am or what I am going to do," Dravid said. "I don't expect them to like it, but at some stage I hope at some stage they will respect the fact that I was at least able to front up and have these conversations with them.

The 49-year-old also opened up on the rationale behind the decision, stating that with Rishabh Pant establishing himself as the first-choice keeper, there was a need to groom a younger wicketkeeper who could challenge him. 

"We have only three Tests this year and with Rishabh Pant having established himself as our No. 1 choice wicketkeeper, we were looking to groom a younger wicketkeeper. That was it. This doesn't change my feelings or respect for Wriddhi or his contribution."

India open their Test series against Sri Lanka on March 4 (Friday) in Mohali before the change of venue to Bangalore for the final Test of the series.