‘IPL Has Helped Identify Next Generation Leaders’

As the chairman of selectors till March this year, M.S.K. Prasad is credited with picking the best teams for India to dominate world cricket across all three formats. In edited excerpts of this interview with Outlook, Prasad talks about captaincy and its spinoffs…

Split Captaincy

This subject never came up in over four years when I was chairman of the selection committee. This split captaincy is recent talk. That was never in our mind. Now it’s for the next committee to think.

Rohit Sharma The Captain

Rohit is vice captain of the limited overs team. If he was fit, then K.L. Rahul would not have been Virat Kohli’s deputy. Virat Kohli has done exceptionally well as captain in all three formats. There has never been a need for any change.

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Succession Plan

We had already made Shreyas Iyer the captain of the India A limited overs team. Hanuma Vihari was made captain of the India A ‘Test’ team. There is no harm in grooming the next generation leaders.

K.l. Rahul’s IPL Season

They (Joshi’s committee) would not have gone to Rahul for the Australian tour if he did not show traits of a leader. Even Iyer is in the same league. Captaincy has not impacted their batting. Shreyas has matured a lot with Delhi Capitals. IPL has helped find the next generation of captains.

Australia Tour

Ajinkya Rahane will be leading in the Tests once Virat returns after the first Test in Adelaide. We can then see how good Rahane is. At the end of the day, performance will matter. Captaincy doesn’t guarantee a permanent seat in the team. The good thing is we have the next generation of leaders ready.