Dinesh Karthik empathises with Wriddhiman Saha: It's very hard when you are told to move on
India Today
Empathising with Wriddhiman Saha, veteran wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik said Rishabh Pant's rise to the first-choice status and the need to groom young backup wicketkeepers must have influenced the team management's decision to drop the Bengal stumper from the Test side.
Dinesh Karthik empathized with fellow India wicketkeeper-batter Wriddhiman Saha, saying it's very hard when the team management decides to move on and look ahead but said the Bengal stumper would have understood the decision.
Wriddhiman Saha had created a flutter when he revealed private conversations with head coach Rahul Dravid and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly a day after he was dropped from the Test squad for the upcoming 2-match series against Sri Lanka.
Saha, who has played 40 Tests over the 12 years for India, revealed last month that he was indirectly told to consider retirement if he wanted while adding that Dravid had told him during the tour of South Africa that he shouldn't be surprised if he finds his name missing from the Test squad for the Sri Lanka Test series, starting March 4.
The senior selection committee, led by Chetan Sharma, picked Pant as the first-choice wicketkeeper and picked Andhra Pradesh's KS Bharat as the back-up option in the 18-man squad. Saha also confirmed that chief selector Sharma had told him that he won't be considered "anymore".
"I'm pretty sure from wherever I've seen with Wriddhiman's interviews, he understands where this decision is coming from," Dinesh Karhik told the ICC.
"I know no cricketer is going to accept that when you're being told to move on. It is a very hard one because this is what they've been doing day in and day out.
"All of us want to represent the country and that is the burning desire for everybody. So when somebody comes in says, 'I think your time is done,' it can be a hard one to swallow. But it is understandable and you have to understand where the selectors, the coach and the captain are coming from," Karthik said.
