Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has now taken a U-turn from his previous statements on the Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya after he proved him wrong with his powerful performance in the third match of the just-concluded three-match ODI series against Australia.
In the just-concluded series, Hardik Pandya played all the three-match as a specialist batsman and gave brilliant performances, scoring – 90 in 1st ODI, 28 in 2nd ODI, and 98 in 3rd ODI. In fact, in the third ODI, Hardik Pandya has adjudged the Man of the Match.
Meanwhile, Sanjay Manjrekar has found himself at the receiving end of criticism and trolling because of his recent statements on Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya. Well, recently, in an interview, Sanjay Manjrekar had claimed that neither Jadeja nor Pandya would make it to his limited-overs team. He had said:
“My selection and thoughts are based on a principle that I have learned over the years: if you have specialists who can walk-in based on one discipline, you fill your team with those players. I do not have a problem with Jadeja; I have a problem with his kind of cricketers in white-ball cricket,”
He added:
“Even Hardik Pandya will not be in my team. They add illusory value to the team. Of course, I have always rated Jadeja highly in the Test format,”
Well, Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya, both the cricketers gave a fitting reply to the commentator with their powerful performance in the third and final ODI match. The duo injected new life to the Indian batting side in the ongoing 3rd ODI match against Australia on Wednesday.
It happened when the Men in Blue were struggling at 152/5 at one stage, this is when Ravindra Jadeja (66 off 50) and Hardik Pandya (92 off 76) took the matters into their own hands as the duo brought up 300 runs for India, with the last 100 runs coming from only 51 deliveries.
Later after the match, when Sanjay Manjrekar was proved wrong, he took to his Twitter and accepted that he was being skeptical about Hardik Pandya. In his tweet, Sanjay also called Hardik Pandya, the ‘pure batsman’ in ODI format. He wrote:
“Was skeptical about Hardik the pure batsman in 50 overs cricket. Not anymore.”
Here, check out the tweet:
Was skeptical about Hardik the pure batsman in 50 overs cricket. Not anymore. ????#AUSvsIND
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) December 2, 2020
