After Nair, Vijay reveals lack of clarity from selection panel
MUMBAI: A week after Karun Nair revealed that he had “no conversations” with Indian selectors after being dropped without playing a single match in England, opener Murali Vijay has levelled the same accusation, saying nobody has spoken to him since his ouster midway through the tour to England.
Vijay had a torrid time in England where he registered scores of 20, 6, 0 and 0 in the first two Tests. KL Rahul replaced him in the third Test following which Vijay was dropped from the squad for the last two games. “Neither the chief selector nor any other person spoke to me in England after I was dropped from the third Test. None of them have spoken to me since. I did have a conversation with the members of the team management in England and that’s it,” Vijay was quoted by Mumbai Mirror.
A miffed chairman of selectors MSK Prasad on Thursday expressed his surprise after Vijay spoke about “lack of communication” from the national selection committee. “All these are baseless reports,” Prasad said.
“With regard to the non-communication with Vijay after dropping him, I am surprised why he has said this while my colleague and selector on call Devang Gandhi had clearly informed him about the reasons why he was dropped,” said Prasad.
Like Nair, Vijay was also kept out of India’s squad for the ongoing Tests against the West Indies — a decision that didn’t go down well with off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who slammed the MSK Prasad-led selection committee.
“I tend to agree with what Harbhajan Singh has said about parameters of selection. It is important that a player is told about the reasons for keeping him out so that he knows where exactly he stands in the team management’s and selectors’ scheme of things,” said the 34-year-old Vijay.