Former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chairman of selectors; MSK Prasad has been in the headlines throughout his stint. From Ambati Rayudu’s ICC World Cup snub to MS Dhoni’s future, Prasad received some severe criticisms from the media and former cricketers.
Despite that, the panel headed by Prasad did a relatively good job in building the squad. India have been a force to reckon with, in the last few years across the three formats. From registering wins in South Africa, England, Australia, and New Zealand, Virat Kohli & Co have looked indomitable.
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While MSK Prasad’s tenure witnessed some highs, it also its share of lows. Recently, the former India cricketer revealed the three biggest mistakes as the chief selector during an interaction with Fancode. Karun Nair has had limited opportunities in his career and Prasad admitted that his selection committee should have given more chances to the Karnataka batsman.
“I feel Karun Nair especially after getting that triple century, we didn’t give much opportunities. We could’ve given him that comeback opportunity. We did give him the England series but he didn’t get a match to play, but someone who scores 300, this happens very rarely in world cricket, and we couldn’t give him a comeback opportunity is really heart-breaking, not only for him, for all of us,” MSK Prasad said.
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Snubbing Ambati Rayudu was wrong: MSK Prasad
Furthermore, MSK Prasad had to deal sharp criticism for dropping Ambati Rayudu from the World Cup squad. The former selector reckons it as one of the biggest mistakes during his time. Incidentally, Prasad then backed ‘three dimensional’ Vijay Shankar ahead of Rayudu.
“Second thing is, I also feel bad for Ambati Rayudu, he was in thick and thin of things till the last second of the World Cup and on that day of the selections, he was missed out, there’s no doubt that it’s not only he who felt bad for it, I am sure all of selection committee, all of the members also feel bad for that,” Prasad added.
Finally, MSK Prasad believes dropping the duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja following a poor run in the ICC Champions Trophy in 2017 was not appropriate. The spin duo had to face the heat for India’s humiliating defeat against arch-rivals Pakistan in the final. Although Jadeja managed to regain his spot, Ashwin is yet to play a limited-overs match since then.
“One more point to stress is, after the Champions Trophy, we had to move on from Ravindra Jadeja and Ashwin and we brought in Kuldeep and Chahal. It’s a wonderful move that has paid rich dividends for us for the next couple of years, but let’s not forget that they were no.1 and no.2 test cricketers when they were left out of the ODI side,” MSK Prasad concluded.