Five Big Blunders Committed By MSK Prasad-Led Selection Panel
Published - 02 Aug 2019, 03:34 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 04:03 AM
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Perhaps no selection panel has divided opinions like the current one which is led by MSK Prasad. Having been appointed in 2016, the current selection panel has had an adventurous stint so far. More often than not, MSK Prasad has faced the heat for his decisions in his eventful tenure thus far. He is more than likely to step down in a matter of months. But before he concludes his tenure, we take a look at five biggest blunders committed by the current selection panel:
5. Ignoring Shubman Gill:
Shubman Gill was a surprising omission from Team India’s squad for the upcoming tour of West Indies. He is being widely tipped to be the next big thing in Indian cricket and is seen by many as the one who can solve India’s middle-order woes in ODIs. Gill had made his ODI debut earlier this year in New Zealand and many thought that he would now get a longer rope. However, the selectors decided otherwise and ignored the youngster who recently hit three fifties for India A against West Indies A.
4. Ignoring Ravichandran Ashwin:
Ravichandran Ashwin was an integral part of the Indian team across formats not very long ago. However, he has completely fallen down the pecking order in ODIs and T20Is since 2017. A bowler who helped India win the Champions Trophy 2013 was completely ignored after the emergence of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.
Kuldeep and Chahal have done well but their performance in the recently-concluded World Cup showed that India need their experienced off-spinner at the moment to get things done in big games. Ashwin is also in good form. He impressed in this year’s IPL as well as in his recent county stint.
3. Calling Mayank Agarwal to World Cup:
Mayank Agarwal, who made his Test debut in December last year, was not even remotely close to breaking into the ODI team in recent times. But the MSK Prasad-led selection panel once again showed their knack of being utterly unpredictable and called Mayank Agarwal to replace Vijay Shankar in the World Cup squad. The decision did raise a number of eyebrows as Agarwal was not even a part of the standby list.
2. Treatment of Ambati Rayudu:
The treatment of Ambati Rayudu pretty much sums up the work of current selection panel. The right-handed batsman could not help but announce his retirement from the game after the heartbreaking treatment meted out to him.
Rayudu made a comeback to the Indian team during last year’s Asia Cup and impressed straightaway. But just before the World Cup, he failed to deliver in three outings against Australia and the selectors decided to drop him. Although Rayudu was named among five standbys for the World Cup, he was ignored twice when the selectors and the Indian team management opted for Rishabh Pant and Mayank Agarwal as replacements for the injured pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Vijay Shankar. The Hyderabad star eventually decided to retire from international cricket.
1. Confusion over MS Dhoni:
The selectors’ failure to deal well with MS Dhoni’s career is probably their biggest their failure. The year was 2017 when MSK Prasad had boldly said that Dhoni was no more an automatic choice in the team. Two years down the line and Dhoni is still an integral part of the team even though the veteran has not quite delivered as per expectations.
Dhoni was once again in the headlines for all the wrong reasons due to his uncharacteristic knocks in the World Cup. But despite that the selectors did not take any big call while Dhoni decided to bring things under control by taking a two-month break.
