Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar has slammed Team India captain Shubman Gill for not turning to the spinners soon enough, despite knowing that the pace bowlers were struggling to make an impact on Day 1 of the third Test against England as well.

“I think everyone will agree that spin was introduced very late, and it’s something that Shubman Gill must make a mental note of. Now, Australia, with the kind of seam attack that they have, and in the past as well, during the Mitchell Johnson or Glenn McGrath days, they never kept that spinner of some quality out of the game for too long. I thought Gill went with the record of Lord’s, where 89% of wickets are picked by pacers, plus what the seamers had done in the last Test,” Manjrekar said on ESPN Cricinfo.

“The lesson for him was that if the seamers are proving to be ineffective, because of the conditions or sometimes you can just lose form, you must never forget about the two bowlers, who may not look likely to get wickets, but will get you wickets because they are pure bowlers. It is not a wild card that you are playing, they are two proper pure spinners, and you must learn to keep them around,” he further added.

However, Sanjay Manjrekar also stated that England being forced to do something against their usual template shows that they are under pressure as well.

“As far as the match is concerned, clearly the pressure has got to Ben Stokes. More than how they batted and the overall approach, what they did after winning the toss on a ground where bowling first has actually gotten more winning results. So, pressure on,” he said.

“All other things that have followed has a lot to do with the pitch conditions and general sort of cricketing conditions today. This is just unbelievable that we are talking about this team without three key players, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Mohammed Shami, competing in this fashion,” Sanjay Manjrekar concluded.