What does selection committee chairman say on the future of Yuvraj Singh ?

Selection committee chairman MSK Prasad makes shocking statement on Dhoni

yuvraj-dhoni-PTI-L
The selectors haven’t included Yuvraj Singh for India’s limited overs tour in Sri Lanka. File Pic

Debasis Sen, Pallekele: BCCI’s selection committee chief MSK Prasad today confirmed that they have given rest to veteran left hand batsman Yuvraj Singh for the limited overs series against Sri Lanka as the selectors have started a new policy where they have identified some set of players who will be considered for the next 4-5 months. They will be rotated for next 4-5 months to come to a conclusion that these are the say certain players who will go on to play the 2019 world cup.

“We have rested Yuvraj for this series. In the first half you started that we have dropped him… let me be very clear… we have started a policy where we have identified some set of players who will be considered for the next 4-5 months and we will rotate them and after those 4-5 months we will come to a picture that these are the say certain players who will go on to play the 2019 world cup. In that process we have started, that we have initiated.. rotating the players and resting some of the main players so we will see how do some of these youngsters do, whoever will come up how they will fare in the next coming months or so. And then take a call by the end of the year,” said Prasad.

Prasad further stated that former India skipper MS Dhoni is not an automatic choice when it comes to selection process of the 2019 World Cup. He further added that the selectors wants to see how Dhoni performs in the next few games before coming to any solution. Prasad also drew comparisons between Dhoni and Tennis legend Andre Agassi.

“Whenever a player keeps ageing, I was just reading Agassi’s book, Open, his life actually started after 30 years. Till then he won two or three. His actual life started after that. He lived with media pressure, “When are you going to retire?” But he played till 36 and he won so many grand slams. So you never know. We don’t say it is an automatic this thing… but we weill see. We are all stakeholders. We all want the Indian team to do well. If he is delivering, why not? If he is not, we will have to look at alternatives,” added Prasad.

On being asked whether MS Dhoni too will be rested ahead of the 2019 World Cup, Prasad replied, ”We will see. The legend that he is, we don’t want to make it, but yes we have a plan.”

India’s star spinners like Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja will play county cricket after the selectors have decided to give them some rest during the limited overs series. Prasad was happy that they are going to play county cricket in England.” Actually it is the other way around and if we can say it is a blessing in disguise if test players like Pujara and Ashwin. Of course Ashwin is a part of other formats too, but it is a blessing in disguise for both of them because we will have a full fledged tour in June of five Tests in England next year. So it’s always good to play and get that first hand feel of the conditions which is going to happen in the summer after that,” said Prasad.

He also said that young wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant is one of the players to watch out for in the build up to the 2019 World Cup.”Rishabh Pant is one of the players to watch out for. He didn’t have a great South Africa tour. We are looking to give him more chances in the T20 format. Just like Hardik Pandya, we will start with the T20 format and then figure out Pant’s progress,” Prasad added.

Prasad further said that KL Rahul will bat at number 4 during the limited overs series. ”we are going to try out KL Rahul at No. 4 in this series. He is too good a player to sit out. Because Shikhar and Rohit are in very good, that’s what we saw in the Champions Trophy, we will start with KL in that particular order. These are different permutations and combinations we will keep trying till the end of this year and we will boil down to one particular pattern and then we will continue with that.”

The selectors have chosen few left arm fast bowler as to have all bases covered.” We have already selected 7 or 8 left arm pacers like Aniket Chowdhury and others. The idea is to have a left arm fast bowler in the side so as to have all bases covered for the 2019 World Cup.”

MSK Prasad also lauded Bengal’s left arm fast bowler Kanishk Seth.