India’s chairman of the senior selection committee, MSK Prasad addressed the press one day after India’s squad for the ODIs and the lone T20I against Sri Lanka was announced highlighting on few facts to be kept in mind for future aspects of Team selection.
In the recent squad selection players like Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuvraj Singh, and Umesh Yadav were rested from the limited-overs squad. Youngsters like Axar Patel, Manish Pandey, and Shardul Thakur are given chance.
Prasad said that the plan was to give the players around four-five months to show what they can bring to the table. He also added that in nine to ten months’ time, the selection committee would be able to identify the core group of players it wants to play in the 2019 World Cup in England.
“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,” Prasad said in Pallekele, “After those 4-5 months, we will (know) that these are the certain players who will go on to play the 2019 World Cup.
“In that process, we have started rotating the players and resting some of the main players so we will see how some of these youngsters do, how they will fare in the next coming months or so. And then take a call by the end of the year. To be precise we need to give due recognition to performance at domestic level and also to the A tours. That is the very purpose of having domestic and A tours also. At some point in time we have to give opportunities for those who have done well otherwise there is no point in having such tours,” he added.
He cleared the fact that fitness would be kept in mind and seen as the protagonist for selection of the world cup squad. Prasad added that they have already identified a certain pool of players who they will rotate over the coming months in order to fix upon the perfect combination for the World Cup. He said they have around 22 to 25 players in the pool, and the players will be given chances to perform for India.
“Yes, after the Champions Trophy, personally the committee and I felt that we need to be much stronger. (With respect to) skill-level, there are no two ways. Skill-level, we are number one in the world, when it comes to fitness, we need to raise our standards. The players and selectors sat and fixed certain parameters. This is the fitness parameters, this is the body texture. We have fixed those parameters. They have to match them. Today, the entire world has got those standards. Though we are slow, I am sure we will definitely catch up.” Prasad said.
