Former India fast bowler Venkatesh Prasad lashed out at Aakash Chopra, saying the former opener had conveniently misquoted him over KL Rahul debate in his YouTube show on Tuesday.
Prasad came up with a strongly-worded statement on Twitter, slamming Chopra for alleging that the fast bowler had a personal agenda against under-fire Rahul.
Venkatesh Prasad, Aakash Chopra involved in twitter fight
Venkatesh Prasad has been severely critical of KL Rahul over the star batter’s dipping form in Test cricket. Prasad lashed out at Rahul and even alleged ‘favouritism’ in the Indian team, adding that Rahul doesn’t deserve a place in the Indian Test XI.
In a series of tweets, Prasad even said Mayank Agarwal and Shikhar Dhawan did not get long ropes like Rahul despite performing well at the opener’s spot for India in the past.
How and why did the Venkatesh Prasad vs Aakash Chopra spat being?
It seems the debate regarding KL Rahul’s place in the Indian Test team is not going to end soon as former cricketers Venkatesh Prasad and Aakash Chopra have gotten involved in a public spat on social media.
It all started with former India pacer Prasad expressing his disappointment over KL Rahul’s continued selection despite his poor form again and again on Twitter, which led to Aakash Chopra calling it a personal agenda.
Chopra made a whole video about why Prasad shouldn’t have done it and shared Rahul’s stats in SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, and Australia) countries after Prasad shared his overall records in away Tests, breaking ‘Rahul has better overseas record’ perception.
Moreover, in the 12-minute-long video, Chopra pointed out how Prasad did not care to mention the statistics and numbers surrounding other players – potential replacements for Rahul – after the India batter was stripped of vice-captaincy following a poor string of scores in recent Tests.
“He (Prasad) didn’t even write about Shubman’s home numbers. Because you are showing averages, he has played 11 innings at home in which his average is 26.3. I am saying that you shouldn’t judge Shubman Gill with averages. He is a damn good player. He is a better player than that but use the same yardstick for the others. He has shown 14 overseas innings in which he has an average of 37, in which he has conveniently not spoken about SENA countries. If we see only SENA, his numbers will also not be that good. His away numbers are looking good because of Bangladesh,”
Chopra had said.
Prasad launched a length attack on Aakash Chopra
Now, Prasad launched a length attack on Aakash Chopra on Tuesday, February 21 while digging the former India opener’s old tweet where he could be seen taking a dig at Rohit Sharma while being in favour of dropping the current Indian captain in 2012.
“So my friend Aakash Chopra after making a vile video on YouTube this morning where he calls me an agenda peddle, conveniently and cleverly misquotes me, removes Mayank’s average of 70 at home, wants to gag views which are not in line with what he believes but wanted Rohit out,” Prasad said.
While he did mention terms such as ‘with all due respect’ and ‘my friend’ towards Venkatesh, it seems as if Prasad has not taken the video lightly. In a counter-attacking series of threads, Prasad went the extra yard and dug out an 11-year-old tweet of Chopra.
As per the tweet posted in 2012, Chopra had written: “Rahane doesn’t make it to the XI. And ‘talented’ Rohit Sharma does”. And reacting to it, Prasad highlighted that if Rohit at 24, deserved a sarcastic take from Chopra, then his point of view, which he claims does not stem from any sort of ‘personal agendas’ towards Rahul, should be justified too.
In a long six-tweet thread, Prasad started by first calling Chopra’s comments uncalled for and accuses the former batter of misquoting him.
What added fuel to the fire between Venkatesh Prasad and Aakash Chopra?
Prasad said that ‘difference of opinion’ is not a personal agenda. Prasad said that Chopra may not agree with him but his narrative maybe completely different but calling it personal agenda was poor.
Prasad also addressed Chopra’s ‘slamming a player when the match is going on’ remark saying that it doesn’t affect players and since they deposit the phone before coming to the ground, it doesn’t matter.
Aakash Chopra’s Final reply to “Venky Bhai”
Rahul despite scoring just 198 runs in his last 12 Test innings is being backed by captain Rohit and head coach Rahul Dravid for his centuries in England and South Africa in 2021 and Prasad had broken that notion by sharing his records away from home where he averages 30.
Thank you for reading.
