Australia won the third test match of Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2023 at Indore by nine wickets, India now has a lead of 2-1 against the visitors. Aussies have qualified for the World Test Championship (WTC) final after avoiding the clean sweep in the four-match series. Sanjay Manjrekar criticised Indian team management for sending Ravindra Jadeja ahead of Shreyas Iyer in both innings of the Indore match.
Manjrekar said he failed to understand why a proper batter was sent after Jadeja at the Indore match:
‘It has just disappointed me in the last and this innings as well that Jadeja came ahead of Shreyas Iyer. You can’t be doing that for left-right combination. You’ve got a proper batter…even if he is a right-hander,” said former Indian cricketer.
Iyer played an attacking knock of 26 runs while batting at No.6. in the second innings, he was dismissed for a duck while batting in the same position during the first innings.
Team India’s batting unit did not click as a whole, as they were bowled out for 163 in their second innings, the right-handed batter smashed two sixes and three fours and showed fighting spirit in his second innings at the Indore match.
Shreyas Iyer on the charge. Goes for a maximum off Matthew Kuhnemann.#TeamIndia with a lead of 23 runs now.
Live – https://t.co/xymbrIdO60 #INDvAUS @mastercardindia pic.twitter.com/jlHiAFmCdv
— BCCI (@BCCI) March 2, 2023
“And Jadeja coming in as a left-hander…I can understand when you have 2-3 left-arm spinners like Bangladesh used to have in the past. Here you have two quality off-spinners bowling. It did not make any sense to me. Iyer has a great feel for spinners so you want him ahead in the line-up. And he has shown his class,” he further added.
While the left-hander batter, who shined with the bat in the first two matches of BGT 2023, managed scores of 4 & 7 runs in both innings of the third game of the series at Indore. In both stints of a test match, Jadeja was dismissed by Nathan Lyon.
“Great captaincy too from Australia’s Steve Smith in the way he got Starc into the attack. They realised Iyer is so good against spin, let’s try him against pace,” said Manjrekar on Iyer’s dismissal.
The one wicket which was taken by the Aussies pacer in the third test match was of Shreyas, Mitchell Starc got him out in the second innings by Usman Khawaja taking a splendid catch.
Now, India will be looking to win the last test match of the series to reach the WTC Final, Men in Blue now has the lead of 2-1 in the four test match series. Rohit Sharma-led side will take on Australia for the fourth test match at Ahmedabad on 9th March.