Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar believes that Australia capitalized on the narrow opening in the Indian team’s batting order during the marquee final against the home favourites, India, at the Narendra Modi Stadium. The Men in Blue failed to put up a challenging target at Ahmedabad after losing quick wickets in the game.
While Rohit Sharma had a great start, India lost wickets in no time. The final two batting prospects, Kohli and Rahul, appeared to be cautious on the treacherous wicket as they battled the well-organized Australian bowlers. They refrained from going for boundaries but were unable to put pressure on the Australian bowling attack due to the lack of batting depth in the Indian team.
Speaking on Star Sports, Sanjay Manjrekar expressed his belief that the Indian team felt the pressure of not having enough batting depth against the mighty Australia in the World Cup final. He thinks that this was the reason behind KL Rahul’s cautious knock in the game, and Ravindra Jadeja coming at Number 7 position for the team.
“India felt the pressure of not having depth; you know, those little chinks in India’s armour came to the fore, The batting depth wasn’t there, and you saw the way KL Rahul played a bulk of the innings with the knowledge that there isn’t much batting to come, Well, India had certain limitations that they had covered beautifully throughout the tournament, with Jadeja at number 7 and their batting finishing at number 6,” Sanjay Manjrekar said.
India’s lack of depth in batting was exposed during the final in Ahmedabad with Hardik Pandya’s absence being felt by the team. The Men in Blue lost half their side within the 36th over and ultimately only managed to score a modest 241 runs in the showpiece final.
If It Was A-League Match, India Would Have Played Differently – Sanjay Manjrekar
Sanjay Manjrekar believes that the Men In Blue would have taken more risks if it was a league match, and he reckons that the team would have shown better temperament if they played with less pressure in the match.
“Just imagine this game was a league match between Sri Lanka and India; would India have taken that risk? Maybe yes, that is where perhaps temperament comes in, and maybe, if it was a league match, India would have played differently,” Sanjay Manjrekar added.
Team India played at their absolute best in the ODI World Cup 2023, winning nine of their nine games in the league stage. They were at the top again after that, as they crushed New Zealand by 70 runs in the semi-final. They suffered a heartbreaking loss in the final, failing to end their ICC title drought after 10 long years.