Yuvraj Singh has been rested; doors are open for everybody: Chief India selector MSK Prasad

New Delhi: India's 15-member squad for the 5 ODIs and one-off T20 against Sri Lanka was announced on Sunday. 

Yuvraj Singh did not make the cut and the BCCI had to face a lot of backlash for ignoring the left-hander.

Team India selection commitee chief MSK Prasad clarified of Monday that Yuvraj's exclusion is not the end of the road for the 36-year-old's ODI career. 

Prasad added that Yuvraj has only been rested and that the doors are "never closed for anybody."

"Everybody has got a right to play cricket," Prasad is quoted as saying by PTI.

"It's their passion. They are chasing their passion. In terms of selection, we try to select the best possible team. Discussions happen about everybody. It is not just MS Dhoni (or anybody else). When we pick, when we talk about combinations, we talk about everybody."

Prasad said that Yuvraj has a chance at making it to the squad if he delivers in the future. 

"Whenever a player keeps ageing, for example, I was just reading Agassi’s book, Open, his life actually started after 30 years. Till then he won two or three titles. His actual life started after that."

"He lived with media pressure, 'When are you going to retire?' But he played till 36 and he won so many Grand Slams. So you never know," Prasad added.

"We don't say it is an automatic thing but we are all stakeholders. We all want the Indian team to do well. If he is delivering, why not? If he is not, we will have to look at alternatives," Prasad concluded.

Yuvraj made a comeback into the Indian setup in the ODI series against England earlier in the year. He scored a match-winning 150 in the series but has since been unable to reproduce that form.