MSK Prasad wants India to send a jumbo squad for Australia tour

MSK Prasad, the former Indian selection panel head, said that Team India needs to send a larger contingent for the Australia tour, bearing in mind the coronavirus pandemic. Currently, the West Indies are in England with 26 members on the roster for the three-match Test series. Pakistan are also in the country with a squad of 29 for the upcoming T20I and Test series.

Prasad, who’s also a former Indian cricketer, said that India should be sending a squad of 26 where both the senior and A teams could be clubbed together. Prasad mentioned that taking a big squad also means an opportunity to test out new players in tough conditions.

“The team management and seniors will have an opportunity to look at the youngsters who are knocking the doors. In this process, you can also monitor those players who can be the potential guys for different spots in future,” Prasad was quoted as saying in Hindustan Times.

It would be ideal to go with a large contingent, says MSK Prasad

A long squad also means that the teams could take part in a warm-up match during the quarantine period before the international fixtures. “Since we cannot trust the net bowlers about their exposure to COVID, it would be ideal to go with a large contingent as we can be assured of all the players’ safety as they will be in a bio-secure environment,” Prasad reasoned.

Prasad was of the opinion that in case of a COVID positive case, it won’t be tough to find a replacement if India pick a bigger squad. “In case someone tests COVID positive, then the players from this contingent can be picked as they would have served the mandatory quarantine period,” Prasad added.

Prasad reckons that the batsmen from the first-choice team will have a number of bowlers at their disposal for practising. “Even for our main bowlers, they will have fresh batsmen to bowl at unlike the same bunch of first team boys,” he added.

India are scheduled to play four Tests and three ODIs on their tour of Australia. They will also be taking part in a Day-Night Test at the Adelaide Oval.

His Choices:

Openers: Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul.

Middle-order: Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer.

Wicketkeeper: Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha.

Spinners: Ravi Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shahbaz Nadeem, Rahul Chahar, Kuldeep Yadav.

All-rounder: Hardik Pandya.

Pacers: Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmedh, Shardul Thakur.

Purely white ball: Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Krunal Pandya.