Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar said that Team India skipper Rohit Sharma’s defensive game is a concern before the five-match
Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series against Australia. Sharma got out for just two runs in the first innings of the series opener against New Zealand in Bengaluru on Thursday, October 17 as well.
Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Manjrekar stated: “In Australia, the ball won’t seam around as much, but yes, I think Rohit Sharma’s form, especially his defensive game is a bit of a worry. Virat Kohli will have to do something about his obsession with front-foot play that he has. Yashasi Jaiswal showed some great signs which augurs well. Sarfaraz Khan will have to work his approach out, and Rishabh Pant playing like Pant. So, yeah, in a way, the team management and selectors will know exactly what are going to be the areas of concern.”
“Combination of the ball doing a lot, New Zealand bowlers blowing well, and maybe some batters not trusting their defence and not being confident with the way they were defending the moving ball. Rohit Sharma tried to counterattack, Sarfaraz as well played that kind of a shot. Virat Kohli was too much on the front foot, so got himself into a bit of a tough position. When you are taking a risk like that, like Rohit Sharma did, then you’ve got to nail it, otherwise, it looks terrible. So, Rohit Sharma at least had some justification because he was there for a while.”
While India’s decision to bat first after winning the toss didn’t work for them, Sanjay Manjrekar backed captain Rohit Sharma. He also stated
that deciding to bat or bowl first wasn’t a very straightforward choice on this wicket as well.
“Anybody who had a look a the surface was wondering what would a captain do after winning the toss. So, it wasn’t one of those straightforward decisions where you saw the pitch and you want to bat first or bowl first because clearly it was a pitch which was made for spinners but had a certain amount of dampness because of the weather around. India would not have imagined that it would have so much life and would work so much in favor of New Zealand,” Sanjay Manjrekar concluded.
