'Honest coach or someone who gives false hope?' - Irfan Pathan opens up on Wriddhiman Saha's snub

Few hours after wicketkeeper-batter Wriddhiman Saha revealed the exact conversation with Indian head coach Rahul Dravid about his axing, former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan came up with his opinion on the matter. Pathan took to Twitter to share his views and also asked netizens about their opinion as well.

Saha has been the talking point ever since he disclosed that Dravid cleared that the selectors and team management want to look beyond and give chances to new faces. The 37-year-old was also told that he is not the team’s first-choice wicketkeeper anymore.

Honest coach or someone who gives false hope?: Irfan Pathan

“An honest coach Or someone just gives hope even after knowing that a player doesn’t fit in the scheme of things? Your opinion????? For me an honest coach ALWAYS!” Pathan wrote on Twitter.

An honest coach Or someone just gives hope even after knowing that a player doesn’t fit in the scheme of things? Your opinion????? For me an honest coach ALWAYS!

— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) February 20, 2022

Saha in his conversation with ESPNcricinfo said that Dravid told him that he won’t be picked for the Test series against Sri Lanka. However, he also recalled that the head coach asked him to take ‘some other decision’ if he wants to take during this period.

The batter also hit out at BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, whom he claimed had assured him that he shouldn’t worry about his place in the team.

‘‘When I hit an unbeaten 61 taking a pain-killer in the first Test against New Zealand in Kanpur last November, Dada congratulated me over Whatsapp. He even mentioned that I should not worry about anything so long as he is at the helm of the BCCI. Such a message from the board president really boosted my confidence. But I failed to understand why everything changed so fast,” Saha told The Sunday Express

BCCI selection committee on Saturday named squads for the Sri Lanka series. Apart from Saha, Test specialists Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were also dropped from the squad. Even veteran pacer Ishant Sharma was also ignored by the selectors.