Until Sunday, many thought that the selectors held Ambati Rayudu's '3D' tweet soon after his omission from the World Cup squad against him. And hence, despite being in the reserves, the Hyderabad batsman was not sent in as a replacement even after a second batsman was injured during the World Cup.
Subsequently Rayudu quit all forms of the game in frustration.
But, on Sunday, the chairman of selectors found the witty side to Rayudu's "Just Ordered a new set of 3d glasses to watch the world cup" tweet, which still remains the last post from the Rayudu's handle.
"Frankly speaking, that was a lovely tweet. I really enjoyed it. Seriously, it was a very timely one and was very sarcastic. I don't know how it struck him but I enjoyed it," said Prasad with a smile.
On a serious note, Prasad clarified why Rayudu did not figure in the World Cup scheme of things: "First of all, how much emotions have gone through anybody, the same emotions have gone through the selection committee too.
"But having said that, with regards to the decision that was taken is completely devoid of any biasness or any favouritism. From the beginning I have been telling why we have picked Vijay Shankar, why we have picked even Rishabh Pant or Mayank Agarwal, somewhere it is definitely related to Rayudu case also.
"There is no second thought, there is nothing against that," he added.
Prasad revealed how the selection committee backed Rayudu even after he had failed a fitness test last year ahead of England ODI series.
"I can give you a small example about Rayudu. When Rayudu was picked, on the basis 17-18 T20 performances we picked him in the ODI side, so there was a lot of criticism but we had some thoughts about him," Prasad said.
"Subsequently, when he failed the fitness test, this selection committee has backed him and we put him through a fitness programme for a month and we ensured that he comes back fit and comes into the side. Once he has come into the side, we backed him.
"But due to certain permutations and combinations of the side, we could not pick him so that doesn't make this selection committee or me in person being biased," he added.
