Former cricketer-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar feels that the Indian spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are more focused on their economy rather than picking wickets.
The Indian cricket team failed to make a fruitful start to their T20 World Cup 2021 campaign suffering a humiliating defeat of 10 wickets at the hand of Pakistan. It was the first time in history that the Indian cricket team lost the game to Pakistan in any World Cup event.
Since it was a huge defeat, a lot of fingers were pointed towards the selection of bowlers. During the match, India decided to play Ravindra Jadeja and Varun Chakravarthy as specialist spinners against Pakistan.
Team India has two more spinners to choose from in Ravichandran Ashwin and Rahul Chahar but it’s unlikely that either of them will get a chance to showcase their skills in a must-win clash in Dubai on October 31, where they will lock their horns with New Zealand.
In his column for Hindustan Times, Sanjay Manjrekar went down hard on Ravi Ashwin and Jadeja. He wrote: “Ashwin, like Jadeja, is not a wicket-taker. Both are more focused on the economy than wickets. I believe in T20s, the spinners’ job is to get wickets and be the game-changer in the middle,”
He added:
“The big concern for me is India’s bowling. I know there is merit in the thought that you must back your players after their failures, especially in T20s, but this is easier to do when you are playing a long season of the IPL and not when a couple of defeats mean all chances of winning the World Cup are down the drain,”
Manjrekar further suggested that India can use Ravindra Jadeja as the third spinner-all-rounder who can bowl a few overs instead of his 4 full overs. He wrote:
“Jadeja can be your third spinner who will bowl a few overs and not someone you depend on to bowl his full quota of four overs. He has done that only a little more than 50% of the times in T20Is, and he certainly can’t be one of your five bowling options,”
