MSK Prasad rubbishes claims of favouritism over Team India ignoring Kuldeep Yadav

The Indian team have fallen prey into a lot of news lately for some selection calls which haven’t gone down too well with the fans. In the recent Test against England, India picked up Shahbaz Nadeem, who wasn’t named in the squad to start with, even though the public opinion would have asked them to play Kuldeep Yadav. 

In a recent interaction, former Indian cricketer and chief selector, MSK Prasad gave his opinion on the matter. Some people have speculated that there could be favouritism in the Indian team, because of which Kuldeep doesn’t get picked. However, Prasad completely rubbished these claims. 

MSK Prasad, who was himself quite infamous for making strange selection calls during his tenure, supported captain Virat Kohli in this matter. He reassured that as the captain, he is not someone who could be thinking on those lines. He pointed out it was Washington Sundar’s batting ability which has helped him edge over Kuldeep in recent times. 

Virat or team management would have had different plans about the selection: MSK Prasad

“Personal issues definitely won’t matter. I don’t think Virat will be thinking on those lines. Virat or team management would have had different plans about the selection. Washington Sundar did extremely well in his last Test match. They must have thought of having an extra batsman who can bowl,” MSK Prasad was quoted saying by Sportskeeda. 

Kuldeep wasn’t considered in the final Test against Australia when India had neither Ravichandran Ashwin nor Ravindra Jadeja available for selection. Prasad further pointed out that the weakness of the England players against left-arm orthodox spin would have made Nadeem a better pick on the day. 

“With regard to Nadeem, the stats show that England had a little tough time against left-arm spinners in Sri Lanka. Though they won the two Test matches, the left-arm spinners got a lot of wickets. So that’s the reason why they would have preferred Nadeem. My personal choice would have definitely been Kuldeep but the reason for Nadeem’s inclusion might be this,” said MSK Prasad.

Ahead of the second Test, it can’t be said who will be picked. However, Nadeem’s performance in the first Test doesn’t reflect too well. He ended with figures of 2 for 167 runs in the first innings and 2 for 66 in the second innings.