Sandeep Patil, the former chief selector of the Indian cricket team, is not very happy with the way the current management has been handling Wriddhiman Saha. After keeping wickets in the home season, Saha was trumped by Rishabh Pant to don the wicket-keeping gloves in New Zealand and this has not gone down too well with Patil who questioned the thinking the management.
“You are promoting Rishabh Pant, but playing with the career of Wriddhiman Saha,” he told mid.day.com.
Patil also said that Saha has the pedigree with the bat and the management should not play around with his confidence by not backing him in overseas conditions.
“Saha will be always be my first choice as wicket-keeper simply because you need experience and he is more experienced. Saha has also always rescued the team so why are you taking away his batting confidence? I know what Saha is capable of; I was in the West Indies when he scored that hundred,” said Patil.
After the series loss, team India captain Virat Kohli said that Rishabh Pant has got a “lot of chances” but the team is not looking to try someone else in the youngster’s place just yet. He also did not want to single out one player when the collective batting unit failed to stand up and score runs.
“…we have given him (Pant) a lot of chances in the home season as well starting from Australia. Then he was not playing for a bit. In turn he really worked hard on himself,” Kohli said.
“You need to figure out when is the right time to give someone else a chance. If you push people too early, they can lose confidence,” he added. “…collectively, we didn’t perform. I don’t believe in singling him out. We take the hit together as a group whether it’s the batting group or as a team,” he went on to add.
