Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar opined that India paid a price for being too rigid with the team selections. He stated that the team with so many out-of-form batters was bound to face the crisis as India did in the series against South Africa.
India lost the series in South Africa by 1-2 despite taking a lead of 1-0 in the first match. Pujara and Rahane are at the centre of criticism as they failed to live up to the expectations despite the backing they received from the team management. It was the same story in this series as well as both of them scored one fifty each in 6 innings.
“It was bound to hurt you at some point in time”- Sanjay Manjrekar
Assessing India’s performance, Sanjay Manjrekar said that India faced the same problem in England but Rohit Sharma’s form covered everything up still they chose to ignore the issue.
“In Tests – even in England – Rohit Sharma covered up India’s issues. India have had a problem with their Test batting for a while. If you look at the top 5, thankfully Rohit and KL Rahul came good in England and they’ve been doing pretty well. But if you look at number 3 Pujara, Virat and Ajinkya Rahane have been out of form,” Sanjay Manjrekar spoke to News18.
“When you have 3, 4, 5 down on confidence and out of form, that is bound to hurt you at some point in time. The bowling has been alright,” he added further.
Since January 2021, Rahane scored 547 runs in 27 innings with a dismal average of 20.25 which included 3 fifties while Pujara scored 810 runs in 30 innings with an average of 27.93 which included 7 fifties. In the meantime, Kohli scored 644 runs with an average of 30.66 as he crossed the 50-mark 5 times.
“That is where team selection comes into play. Where you have a crisis around the corner, where you don’t make any changes. Now if you make changes, it doesn’t make sense because now the block remains. So good captains, leaders, and management see things coming and that is what India paid the price for.
“In South Africa, there was much warning on Pujara and Rahane’s current form and Ravichandran Ashwin as a spinner overseas. All those factors were ignored,” Manjrekar stated.
Manjrekar believes that India repeated the same issues in the ODI series as they failed to see the obvious. In the ODI series, South Africa clean swept the series by 3-0.
“Even in the one-day series, they went with seniors; that is just beyond me. I don’t think that suddenly India cricket is in poor hands. There is talent. I just feel India paid a heavy price for not just seeing the obvious,” he concluded.