MSK Prasad Reveals Why Fit Kedar Jadhav Was Not Picked For Windies ODIs

MSK Prasad, chairman of India’s selection panel, has defended his panel after Kedar Jadhav said that he was not informed about not being selected in the India squad for the remaining three ODIs against Windies.

India, on Thursday, announced their 15-man squad for the remaining three ODI against Windies. They recalled pace bowling duo Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah and dropped Mohammed Shami. But surprisingly, Kedar Jadhav’s name was nowhere to be seen. Jadhav was sidelined after sustaining a hamstring injury during the Asia Cup.

He, however, underwent rehabilitation at the NCA in Bangalore and also cleared the fitness Test. After that, the selectors drafted him in the India A squad midway through the Deodhar Trophy. Jadhav made an instant impression by slamming 41 off 25. He also ran three doubles in the last over of the innings to show his fitness.

But the selection surprisingly snubbed him for the remaining ODIs against Windies.

And surprisingly, Jadhav, while talking to reporters, claimed that he did not have any prior knowledge of the squad selection.

This came in the wake of Murali Vijay and Karun Nair’s recent claims that the selectors had not communicated with them before dropping.

However, MSK Prasad has defended the selection panel, saying that they needed Jadhav to play more domestic games before deciding on his comeback.

“We did not pick Kedar because of his history of fitness. There have been occasions earlier when he has come back fit and then broke down, a case in point being the Asia Cup last month,” Prasad told PTI.

“Actually, we were thinking that if India A won today, then Kedar would have got another match, which would have given us a fair assessment of his match fitness. May be we could have added him as an additional player (in Indian team) before the fourth ODI as the Deodhar final is on Saturday. Players need to understand that there is a process that we follow while selecting the team,” MSK Prasad added.