Former Indian cricketer turned commentator Sanjay Manjrekar feels that India’s star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja shouldn’t be one of India’s five main bowlers in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021. Manjrekar’s comments came after Babar Azam-led Pakistan cricket team thrashed team India by 10 wickets in their first clash of the T20 World Cup 2021.
Sanjay Manjrekar opined that India should play Ravindra Jadeja as only a sixth bowling option, while also criticizing the decision of Virat Kohli to exclude Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav from the squad.
In his column for the Hindustan Times, Sanjay Manjrekar asserted that the Indian cricket team should look at Ravindra Jadeja as a batter who can bowl a few overs and not the other way around. He also said that India shouldn’t have promoted Hardik Pandya in their batting order against Pakistan. He said:
“India made a mistake by not sending Hardik ahead of both Jadeja and Pant. I know India wanted to keep the left-hand/right-hand combination going, one important reason why Imad Wasim, the left-arm spinner, bowled just two overs,”
He added:
“But elevating Hardik would have served two purposes. First, you would have given Hardik, the pure batter, the platform any out-of-form batter wants–a bit of time to settle. Also, you would have then had a better understanding of Hardik’s current state of mind and batting ability to decide his immediate future in this tournament,”
Further, Manjrekar said that Hardik should be used as a pure batter in the team, which also means that he should be batting up the order. He said:
“If Hardik is not going to bowl, he must be given the status of a pure batter, and your expectation from him must be like you have from a pure batter,”
The Indian cricket team will be locking their horns with New Zealand on October 26 in Dubai.
