Chairman of selectors MSK Prasad hit back at discarded Indian cricketer Murali Vijay after the Tamil Nadu batsman spoke about “lack of communication” from the national selection committee.

India selection committee -led by MSK Prasad has come under scanner after triple centurion Karun Nair disclosed that neither the team management (head coach Ravi Shastri and skipper Virat Kohli) nor the selectors talked with him about being dropped after six straight Test matches.

Earlier, veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh has also questioned the “parameters of selection” in Team India.

Speaking to media, Prasad has called the reports baseless. “All these are baseless reports,” he said, adding, “With regard to the non-communication with Murali Vijay after dropping him, I am equally 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.”

Murali Vijay was dropped from Indian squad after his flop show in England, where he scored 20 and 6 runs in the first Test in Birmingham, a pair of ducks at the Lord’s.

Prasad also clarified the reason behind dropping Shikhar Dhawan from the Test squad.

“Shikhar is a prolific run-getter in white ball cricket which unfortunately he couldn’t replicate in red ball cricket. We have given him considerable opportunities before taking the decision on him in the longer format and give opportunity to the youngsters like Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal who were prolific run getters in domestic cricket and India A,” Prasad said.

A senior Board of Cricket for Control in India (BCCI) official has also told PTI that Vijay was probably not providing the clear picture of what has transpired.

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“It is very convenient that MSK has been made the whipping boy with some of these players not giving the correct picture. How did Vijay land a contract with Essex? Would he care to tell us? The arrangement was done by BCCI after speaking to national selectors,” a senior BCCI official was quoted as saying.

“Within a week of getting dropped, he was playing County cricket for Essex. He, in fact, missed early part of Vijay Hazare Trophy as he was playing county cricket. So didn’t Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) know that he was playing county cricket. Vijay would do well not to speak about communication,” the official further said.