MSK Prasad reveals three biggest regrets during his tenure as chief selector for Team India

MSK Prasad’s tenure as team India’s chief selector ended recently. During his time at the helm, he and his selection committee had to take a few tough decisions and was at the receiving end of it most of the times as well. However, one has to credit Prasad as he stood firm on the decisions he took even as the Indian team prospered across all the formats.

But the 45-year-old still has a few regrets over the decisions he made when he was the chief selector. His first and foremost regret is not giving enough chances to Karun Nair. The Karnataka player had smashed a sensational triple century against England in 2016 but he didn’t play many Test matches since then and was eventually dropped. Nair himself lamented the fact that he didn’t get a chance to seal his place in the side.

MSK Prasad, while speaking on the same, felt that his panel should’ve given the talented batsman a chance to make a comeback into the side. He also highlighted that Nair didn’t get even a game on England tour which was really sad. “I feel Karun Nair especially after getting that triple century, we didn’t give much opportunties. We could’ve given him that comeback opportunity.

“We did give him the England series but he didn’t get a match to play, but someone who scores 300, this happens very rarely in world cricket, and we couldn’t give him a comeback opportunity is really heart-breaking, not only for him, for all of us,” he said while speaking to Fancode.

MSK Prasad opens up on dropping Rayudu from World Cup squad

MSK Prasad was criticised a lot for dropping Ambati Rayudu from the World Cup 2019 squad. He was looked at as the number four batsman in the 12-month lead up to the mega event but Vijay Shankar’s all-round ability was preferred at the eleventh hour. Opening up on the matter, the former chief selector recalled that it was the toughest decision and the whole panel felt bad for Rayudu.

“Second thing is, I also feel bad for Ambati Rayudu, he was in thick and thin of things till the last second of the World Cup and on that day of the selections, he was missed out, there’s no doubt that it’s not only he who felt bad for it, I am sure all of selection committee, all of the members also feel bad for that,” Prasad further said.

The emergence of the wrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal is one of the success stories during his tenure. However, it led to India dropping their premier spinners then, Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, from the limited-overs set up after the Champions Trophy in 2017. “One more point to stress is, after the Champions Trophy, we had to move on from Ravindra Jadeja and Ashwin and we brought in Kuldeep and Chahal.

“It’s a wonderful move that has paid rich dividends for us for the next couple of years, but let’s not forget that they were no.1 and no.2 test cricketers when they were left out of the ODI side,” MSK Prasad added.