Chairman of selectors MSK Prasad says Shreyas Iyer is the best choice for India’s No 4 problem in the limited-overs line-up after seeing his fluent knocks with the bat. Iyer made his India debut in November 2017 with a T20I against New Zealand and now is one of the strong candidates in the middle.
“If you recall, we had inducted Shreyas Iyer (when Virat Kohli was rested) 18 months back into the ODI squad and he has done reasonably well. Unfortunately, we couldn’t continue with him. Having said that, he has evolved as a player now and he can be the solution to our No 4 slot in both ODIs and T20s,” Prasad told PTI in an interview.
He kept performing for Mumbai in domestic cricket and also for India A. MSKÂ Prasad, said that it was unfortunate that Iyer had to miss the World Cup. He, however, spoke about India’s Test squad.
“The primary duty of the selection committee is to identify right talent, groom them through a systematic process, induct them at an appropriate time into the senior squad and trust them to deliver by backing them,” he added.
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“Except Bumrah, the other fast bowlers (Ishant, Umesh, Shami) had been in the circuit even before our committee took over. Only thing is that they all have combined well as a unit during our tenure…we have been instrumental in helping Bumrah to evolve into a top-class bowler across all formats,” told the 44-year-old former India wicketkeeper-batsman.
“It was the collective opinion of both the selection committee and team the management. With the kind of form Rohit was in of late in white-ball cricket, we thought our Test team will immensely benefit if he can transform that form into red-ball cricket,” said Prasad.
MSK Prasad also said they are very close to finalising the core team for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup.
“I think we are very close to finalising the core team. Maybe a couple of slots is what we are looking for in the next few months in the bilateral series and also in IPL,” added Prasad.
