Ganguly assured a place; Dravid said retirement, says upset Saha

A day after veteran wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha was dropped from the Indian Test team for the Sri Lanka series, he vented his anger by training his guns at BCCI president Sourav Ganguly for going back on his promise.

Earlier, Wriddhiman had pulled out of Ranji Trophy when he was told that he won’t be selected in Indian team.

Saha said that he was told by BCCI president Sourav Ganguly that he “would be in the team”. “After scoring 61 against New Zealand at Kanpur, Dadi (Ganguly) congratulated me over WhatsApp and mentioned, ‘As long as I’m here (helming the BCCI), you would be in the team’. Such a message from the BCCI president really boosted my confidence. What I’m struggling to understand is that how things have changed so fast,” Saha told a media house.

On Saturday (February 19), chief selector Chetan Sharma declared the Test and T20I squads for the series against Sri Lanka starting March 4.

Rohit Sharma was named India Test captain while senior players like Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ishant Sharma and Saha were dropped.

“Even coach Rahul Dravid suggested that I think about taking retirement,” he spilled the beans on classified conversations with head coach.

Saha had travelled to South Africa during the recent Test series but did not get to play a single match.