Team Management And Selection Committee Are Always On The Same Page: MSK Prasad

India’s selection committee chief MSK Prasad, on Thursday, cleared the the air about any rift between his panel and players.

The selection panel came under fire after two India players – Murali Vijay and Karun Nair – publicly claimed that the selectors did not communicate with them before dropping them from the Test squad.

Nair had claimed he hasn’t had “any conversations” with the India selectors and team management about why he didn’t play in any of the five Tests in England. The right-hander was part of India’s original 18-man squad for the Tests in England. However, he did not play any game. To make the matters worse, he watched Hanuma Vihari, who was called up as a replacement during the series, making his debut in the final Test. Nair then suffered another setback when the selectors surprisingly omitted him from the squad for the ongoing series against West Indies.

On the other hand, Vijay also said that he did not have any communication with the selectors. He made the startling claims after being not included in the Test team for the ongoing series. Vijay was dropped from the Test midway through the Test series in England. The opening batsman had made 20, 6, 0 and 0 in the first two Tests of India’s five-match series in England. He then warmed the bench in third Test before being shown the door for the final two games.

He, however, soon found his form while playing for Essex in the county championship. The right-handed batsman made scores of 56, 100, 85, 80 and 2. But those performances counted for little as the selectors ignored him. Vijay then spoke about a lack of communication between the selectors and dropped players.

The turn of events gave rise to speculations that not all is well between the team-management and the selection panel. However, MSK Prasad has rubbished all the rumours and insisted that the team-management and the selection panel are on the same page.

“Team management and selection committee are always on the same page. We are very, very clear on our selection policy and I stand by that,” Prasad said.

Prasad was in Hyderabad where he along with BCCI’s Committee of Administrators (CoA) chief Vinod Rai met India skipper Virat Kohli, head coach Ravi Shastri and Rohit Sharma to chalk out a communication channel that will be employed during selection procedures.