‘People don’t understand injuries, that is why talk rubbish’: Sourav Ganguly on Wriddhiman Saha injury

India have reached Australia for the upcoming series, but there have been quite a few adjustments that were required to be made in the squad before the travel, due to a few players suffering injuries during Indian Premier League 2020 season. Kolkata Knight Riders spinner Varun Chakravarthy who impressed throughout the season, and was included in the T20 squad was replaced by Sunrisers Hyderabad seamer T Natarjan.

Another player who was initially included in the Test squad, but now remains uncertain to feature in the Tests is wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha. Saha missed the final two games for Sunrisers Hyderabad due to hamstring concerns, and in the revised squad released by the BCCI last week, Saha was still included in the Test squad, but the press release mentioned that “a call on his availability will be taken later”.

The discussions over the squad changes and players’ injuries ahead of the Australia tour garnered a lot of buzz in the media with fans questioning the BCCI over the selection methods. But the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly believes that people lack the understanding of how the board functions and do not have all the information regarding the players’ injuries.

“Who should know [about player injuries]? We know, the Indian physio knows, the NCA knows,” Ganguly told The Week, according to ESPNCricinfo.

“I think people don’t know how the BCCI works. The BCCI trainers, physio and Wriddhi himself know that he has two hamstring issues. People don’t understand injuries, that is why they talk rubbish,” he added.

“Wriddhi is travelling to Australia because he will be fit for Tests. He is not part of the shorter formats. For the entire duration of the IPL, Indian physios and trainers were in Dubai,” Ganguly added.

“[India physio] Dr. Nitin Patel is managing injuries and monitoring it all,” he further said.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah posed with the T20 World Cup trophy. Ganguly uploaded a couple of images on Twitter and captioned the post: “It’s time for India in 21… ICC T20 World Cup.”