Kedar Jadhav dropped because of fitness history, says chief selector MSK Prasad

India middle-order batsman Kedar Jadhav was surprised to not find himself in the national squad for the last three ODIs against the Windies. On Wednesday, selectors picked a revised 15-man squad for the remaining ODIs in the 5-match series, after the visitors surprisingly enforced a tie in the 2nd ODI in Vishakhapatnam. Paceman Mohammad Shami has been dropped, making way for India’s premier fast bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah.

However, there were no changes in the batting department, which came as a surprise to Kedar Jadhav. He said on Thursday that there was no communication over his exclusion from the Indian team. However, chief selector MSK Prasad was quick to respond that the batsman was not picked because of his history of frequent injuries.

A ‘fit again’ Jadhav was drafted into the India A side midway into the Deodhar Trophy as the selectors wanted to assess his fitness before taking a call on his comeback. As three national selectors watched his game, Jadhav made his case with an unbeaten 41 off 25, but in the meantime, the ODI team was already announced.

Recurring issues with Jadhav’s hamstring

Jadhav has earlier had problems with his hamstring, which forced him to miss the entirety of the IPL after he was the hero in the Chennai Super Kings’ opening fixture. Similarly, the 33-year old struggled to bat in the final of the Asia Cup against Bangladesh but somehow took his team home off the final ball of the match.

When asked if there was any communication over his selection for the remaining three ODIs against the Windies, Kedar Jadhav said, “I did not know this. Let’s see. You are the first one to tell me this. I need to see why they have not picked me. I don’t know what the plan is now that I am not there in the team. Probably, I will be playing the Ranji Trophy.”

On the other hand, MSK Prasad said that the selectors needed Jadhav to play more domestic cricket before they could take a call 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. 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,” Prasad was quoted as saying to Firstpost.

“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,” the chief selector added.

Get the latest Cricket News and updates from India vs West Indies series, Match Predictions, Fantasy Cricket Tips and lots more on CricTracker.com.