After England series loss, chief selector speaks about plans for Australia series, World Cup

Echoing the sentiments of head coach Ravi Shastri, chief selector MSK Prasad has said that the Indian team showed tremendous intensity on the field and that the team had its moments which could have been encashed.

Speaking about the bowlers, Prasad said that the bowlers did a great job and by picking up 60 wickets in the series, they gave a great account of their skills. However, he said that the batting unit needs to come to the fore if the Indian team wants to be successful in overseas conditions.

'Trying to find ways to get our Test specialists to acclimatise to the conditions'

"We are a settled bowling unit. We need to consolidate our batting department. We should ensure our batsmen get enough preparation time before heading into an important series. We are trying to find ways where our Test specialists will be going early and get enough match practice to get acclimatised to conditions," Prasad said in an exclusive chat with TOI.

With the World Cup approaching soon, Prasad said that his committee has the blueprint ready since they have only 24 ODIs before the tournament and now they are willing to plug few gaps.

The chief selector also spoke about resting players in order to monitor their performance and manage their workload.

"As part of this injury prevention process and workload management process, we have rested Virat Kohli for the Asia Cup and also intend to rest a few more players in the upcoming home series before the Australia tour," Prasad revealed.

The Indian openers struggled a lot in England and did not give a good account of themselves even in South Africa. Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, and KL Rahul were given long runs but could not do any justice to the opportunity provided. Only when Rahul scored a century in the final Test match at the Oval, was there some sort of fight provided to an otherwise bleak series for the batsmen.

"Our openers could have done better. Having said that, the England openers also failed miserably. The conditions were tough and the openers of both the teams failed. Over the last few years, Pujara and Rahane have done well in those No. 3 & No. 5 slots," Prasad conceded.