Raina, a vital element in the middle order of India’s white-ball teams between 2005 and 2015, lost his spot after a string of low scores, which eventually resulted in him being dropped. The 33-year-old batsman, who became a sporadic T20I presence after the 2016 T20 World Cup, made a brief return to the ODI team in 2018 but has been completely overlooked since India’s tour to England that year.

Speaking to PTI, Prasad cited the example of former batsman VVS Laxman when talking about Raina, stating that Laxman scored heavily at the domestic level when he was dropped, but Raina couldn’t capitalise on his chances while representing his state, Uttar Pradesh, or the A side.

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“See VVS Laxman, when he was dropped from the Indian Test squad in 1999, he forced himself back by scoring over 1400 runs in domestic cricket,” said Prasad. ‘This is what is expected from senior players when they are dropped.

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“Unfortunately, we didn’t see that form in Raina’s case in domestic cricket, while other youngsters emerged at the big stage with their brilliant performances in domestic cricket and India A.”

A few weeks ago on a YouTube show Sports Tak, Raina said the selectors hadn’t given him an explanation as to why he was dropped, despite being a key part of the Indian team for a decade. “The selectors should have taken more responsibility towards senior players,” Raina had said. “Someone has to give us details as to what I was doing wrong.”

Prasad, however, insisted Raina had been kept in the loop. “I had personally spoken to Raina calling him to my room and explained him the roadmap for his future comebacks,” he said. “He had, back then, appreciated my efforts. I am really surprised when I have heard things which are exactly contrary to what had happened.”