Former Indian cricketer Venkatesh Prasad came down heavily on the selections and tactics following India’s 408-run defeat in the IND vs SA 2nd Test in Guwahati. The series loss against the Proteas marked India’s second whitewash at home in the span of one year and it largely had to do with imbalance in the playing XI. Prasad lashed out an India’s all-rounder obsession and said that the team needed specialists more than players who could perform with both bat and ball.
‘Brain-fade’
Taking to social media platform X, Prasad flagged India’s obsession with all-rounders as a brain fade, flagging that it was pointless to have then in the XI especially when they weren’t allowed to bowl. The ex-India cricketer was referring to the underutilization of Washington Sundar in the 1st Test and Nitish Kumar Reddy in the 2nd. He slammed the Indian team for poor tactics, body language and skills for the whitewash against SA at home.
“Really disappointed by how India is going about in Test cricket. The all-rounder obsession is absolute brain-fade especially when you don’t bowl them. Rank poor tactics, poor skills, poor body language and an unprecedented two series whitewash at home. Hope this does not get washed off with Test matches nine months away and this negative approach changes,” Prasad wrote.
Prasad further said that players shouldn’t be picked in the Test side based on IPL performances, adding that players who did well Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy should be given preference. He went on to cite the cases of Baba Indrajith, Smaran Ravichandran Shubham Sharma who did well in domestic cricket but haven’t played much in the IPL and still were not in the scheme of things.
“Can’t play sub 40 FC avg players in the Test team based on IPL performances. Playing all rounder in Indian conditions because he can bat is not the correct approach in Test cricket. Test Cricket needs specialists,” Prasad added.
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