Sabyasachi Bagchi: Former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad stepped down from the chair of India junior selection committee chief’s post to join the Indian Premier League outfit Kings XI Punjab as their bowling coach. This team is a preety new side as they have signed a lot of new players and they also got star all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin as their captain. Though Ashwin is not a part of the Indian limited overs side, but Prasad feels that he will do good for the Kings XI Punjab side in the forthcoming season.
“Ashwin is a very good bowler and knows his responsibilities for the team as well. I think under his leadership the team will perform well in this season,” said Prasad while talking to www.xtratime.in.
Beside that he also raised his voice for Ashwin who is only regular in India’s Test squad.” I think Ashwin should be in the Indian team in all three formats. I am surprised that why he is not there in the Indian limited overs team.”
Prasad was the head of India junior selection committee chief but now he has joined KXIP as their bowling coach. On being asked what is his feeling about this new role, Prasad said,” This is nothing new for me, but yes from the selection committee chief to the bowling coach of KXIP, it’s a change of work for me which is quite challenging. In that sense whatever job you do that will be challenging for you. Being a player I was successful, as a coach I was successful as well as I was the bowling coach of the Indian cricket team which won the maiden T20 world Cup back in 2007. Again after that during my stint in the junior selection committee, we went to each and every part of the nation to find young and talented players and you saw the result in the 2019 World Cup. Now I am making a return as a coach and looking forward for my new challenge.”
All the teams have to travel a lot as the gap between the games is very little. While asked about what he would do to keep his bowlers fit, Prasad added,” I would like to thank Kings XI Punjab for giving me this opportunity. Beside that we all know that the team management should look at the fitness of the bowlers. There players also need to understand about his body fitness and understand that how much they need to push.”
In this season, Virender Sehwag is there as a mentor of the team, there is Brad Hodge as well along with Prasad in the coaching department. The former Indian pacer is hopeful that in this season the Punjab based outfit will do well,” This year all the teams are same in strength as they all picked their wanted players through auction. We do have a very good side and Viru as a mentor, Brad Hodge as a coach and Ashwin as captain we will definitely do well this year.”