After Ambati Rayudu, Sanjay Manjrekar Takes A Dig At MSK Prasad

Ambati Rayudu, on Tuesday, completely savaged MSK Prasad and the other selectors with his tweet following the World Cup snub. India, on Monday, had announced their 15-man World Cup squad without Rayudu being a part of it. It was a strange decision given that Rayudu had batted at number four for the team since last year’s Asia Cup. However, the selectors took into account the right-hander’s performance in the three games against Australia last month and dropped him.

The MSK Prasad-led selection panel instead picked newcomer Vijay Shankar for his all round abilities. Shankar had made his ODI debut only a few months ago during the tour of Australia. However, his performance in the limited time it was enough for the selectors to reward him with a World Cup squad.  Prasad had later revealed the reason behind picking Shankar ahead of Rayudu. The former India wicketkeeper said that they went for Shankar because he offers ‘three dimensions’.

“After the Champions Trophy [in 2017], we have tried quite a few middle-order batsmen, which also includes Dinesh Karthik at that order, and we also tried Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey,” he said. “We did give a few more chances to Rayudu but what Vijay Shankar offers is three dimensions: apart from his batting, he can bowl; if the conditions are suitable, overcast, which we might encounter in England, he might bowl a bit and he’s a fantastic fielder.”

Unimpressed with the explanation, Rayudu had taken to Twitter to take a sly dig at Prasad, tweeting:

Just Ordered a new set of 3d glasses to watch the world cup ??..

— Ambati Rayudu (@RayuduAmbati) April 16, 2019

And the latest to take an aim at Prasad is former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar. While Manjrekar did not criticise Prasad directly, he posted a cryptic message for the same. Pointing out Ravichandran Ashwin’s all round display against Rajasthan Royals on Tuesday, Sanjay Manjrekar wrote:

“Great game for Ashwin tonight…as batsman, bowler & captain. He was ‘three dimensional’. ?”

Great game for Ashwin tonight…as batsman, bowler & captain. He was ‘three dimensional’. ?#KXIPvRR

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) April 16, 2019