Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar recently talked about India’s series defeat at home. He questioned Rohit Sharma‘s move to send Washington Sundar ahead of Sarfaraz Khan in the second innings of the second Test in Pune. Rohit Sharma has also looked a bit clueless against the fast bowlers which is a massive concern.
New Zealand handed two consecutive defeats to India at home to clinch a historic Test Series victory. India failed to chase 359 in the fourth innings of the second test as they got bowled out for 245. India’s 12 years long winning streak came to an end after 18 series at Pune when they failed to win in the second test. New Zealand had already won the first test in Bengaluru by eight wickets.
Rohit Sharma needs to be careful with th match-ups – Sanjay Manjrekar
In a conversation with ESPNCricinfo, Sanjay Manjrekar discussed his point of disagreement with the Indian captain. In the fourth innings of the match, Washington Sundar was promoted ahead of the inform batter Sarfaraz Khan at No. 6, he marked that move as tactically wrong.
“The move to have Sarfaraz Khan bat down the order and sending Washington Sundar above him because he is a left-hander, those kind of things shouldn’t happen. It’s just bizarre. That’s one thing that Rohit Sharma needs to be careful of … the T20 thinking of match-ups left hand-right hand combinations. I think he should just go by the overall quality and ability of players,” he said.
Washington Sundar went for 21 in the innings and eventually got dismissed by Phillips, while Sarfaraz failed to repeat his second innings heroics of Bengaluru in Pune Test. He was looking uncomfortable against Santner, who dismissed him for nine runs to end his struggle.
Sanjay Manjrekar feels it’s unfair to blame Rohit Gambhir too much
In the wake of India’s shocking home series defeat, Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir also faced a lot of criticism alongside the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma. He believes that Gambhir is new to his job, he will soon learn.
I will still maintain that the coach has the minimal influence on a team, lesser than your 11th weakest player. He does not set foot on the ground, the captain is in-charge out there. But you have to applaud him for Washington Sundar’s selection, which was an immediate hit,” he stated.
“But the move to send Washington ahead of Sarfaraz Khan or maybe four spinners here would have made more sense. But to put any kind of responsibility on the door of Gautam Gambhir would be terribly unfair because until now we can’t do it because in cricket, a coach has minimal influence on performances,” Manjrekar added.
India will be looking to give a solid performance on the field to win the last Test in Mumbai, which is scheduled to be played from November 1.
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