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Sanjay Manjrekar also hailed Rohit Sharma’s selfless nature as he decided to slot himself in the middle order, instead of shuffling the opening duo of KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Rohit Sharma decided to drop himself down the batting order to accomodate the in-form Rahul and Jaiswal. (Image: AP)
India made three changes to their playing XI for the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy currently being played in Adelaide. Skipper Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Ravichandran Ashwin were included in the playing XI for the pink-ball Test.
‘While Rohit did return to the team, India did not change their opening pair of KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar felt that the move to not tinker with the opening combination was “important.”
He also suggested that the responsibility will be on KL Rahul to “carry” his form.
“This call was very important, with the kind of confidence the two openers have. Although this is going to be a different challenge. Now the challenge for KL Rahul is to carry his form. He gave us a lot of promise. Both Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul are looking good. It is almost imperative that KL Rahul carries his form after the last Test,” the ex-India cricketer told ESPNcricinfo, as per multiple reports.
Sanjay Manjrekar also hailed Rohit Sharma’s selfless nature as he decided to slot himself in the middle order, instead of shuffling the opening duo of KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
“He is a guy who has won people’s hearts by just being a good leader who puts the team first, the way he batted in the 2023 World Cup as well. So, this was, we suggested it and we all thought it was possible that this would happen, more so because Rohit Sharma was the captain who would always put the team first and him later. It makes a lot of cricketing sense and again shows how Rohit Sharma is a little different from some of the other captains that we have seen,” Manjrekar added.
The move, however, did not pay off much with India’s batting order surrendering in front of the Australia bowling line-up comprising the likes of Mitchell Starc and skipper Pat Cummins. The Aussies got off to a flying start having dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal for a duck on the first ball of the Adelaide Test.
KL Rahul and Shubman Gill did offer a fightback but none of them could manage to register a big score. While Rahul was dismissed for 37, Gill departed scoring 31. Skipper Rohit Sharma’s decision to come down to bat in the middle order did not pay off much either.
The India captain faced 23 balls and went back to the dressing room scoring three runs in the first innings of the day-night Test. Mitchell Starc was Australia’s star performer in the first innings having claimed a five-wicket haul.
