Wriddhiman Saha "deserved honesty and clarity", and Rahul Dravid's chat about him potentially not being picked in India's Test team going forward came from a "deep respect for Saha and his achievements and contributions to Indian cricket", the head coach has explained.
On Sunday, Saha told ESPNcricinfo that Dravid had indicated to him the team management's inclination to groom a younger wicketkeeper as Rishabh Pant's understudy following the South Africa tour, and that he could "take some other decision" if he wanted.
Moments after India's 3-0 series win over West Indies, Dravid was asked about the selection call and how he felt about a private conversation being played out the way it has, in public.
"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."
