Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra has hailed head coach Rahul Dravid for his honesty regarding Wriddhiman Saha’s saga.
Saha told the press that he was asked by Dravid to contemplate retirement whereas BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had told him not to worry about his place in the Test team as long as he is at the helm in the Indian board.
Saha was perplexed about what changed so suddenly and why is he no longer in the scheme of things. However, Dravid cleared the air that they are looking to groom a young keeper as incumbent Rishabh Pant has established himself as the first-choice keeper. Furthermore, there are only three Test matches in 2022 for the Indian team.
Dravid added that he wanted to provide clarity to Saha regarding his future and wanted to be honest with him about team management and selectors’ future plans.
Aakash Chopra said while talking to YouTube Channel, “It was twisted and presented that Rahul Dravid told Wriddhiman Saha to retire and the latter said that he is not going to, it is his wish when he should retire. Firstly, that is not the case. The truth is that Rahul Dravid was absolutely honest and honesty is at the top.”
In fact, Chopra recalled the incident when he and Parthiv Patel were dropped from the team and Dravid had called both of them to tell them they can still make a comeback despite being a stand-in captain.
“To be very fair, the day I was dropped from the team, Rahul Dravid was the captain. He called both me and Parthiv separately and said that we are in the scheme of things, that we are not picked for the next match but this is not the end of the road. He did not have to do that, he was the stand-in captain, Dadi [Ganguly] wasn’t available but he still picked up the phone and called.”
“He did the same thing here as well. In my opinion, he did absolutely the correct thing whether it is right or wrong because if you see from Saha’s viewpoint, he has very strong points about his non-selection and future, which is absolutely fair.”
There is no doubt that Dravid did the right thing by giving Saha clarity regarding his future in the Indian team. At the same time, it is up to Saha to take a call on his future.
