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Former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar was not happy with the Indian team’s line-up against Australia in the Melbourne Test match. Manjrekar feels the decision to drop Shubman Gill did not work out well for the team as they missed out on a specialist batsman.
While Gill did not play, India opted to go with all-rounders like Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar in the starting XI. Gill was replaced by Sundar in the only change in India’s line-up for the Melbourne Test.
Sanjay Manjrekar unhappy with Shubman Gill’s omission
While discussing India’s combination for the Melbourne Test, Sanjay Manjrekar slams Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir for opting to play all-rounders instead of Not a professional hitter. According to him, Shubman Gill could have bowled well on this pitch as it suited his style.
“You try to resolve the uncertainty of the batting by getting a bowler who can bat. Nitish Kumar Reddy is in the side at the expense of Shubman Gill. So, they left out a suitable Batsmen, in hindsight, you would think that on a pitch like this, which is the flattest in the five days of the series so far, Shubman Gill would have been handy,” Manjrekar explained.
While Shubman was replaced, India also made some changes in the batting order, moving skipper Rohit Sharma to his usual starting spot. KL Rahul dropped to third spot after a brilliant series as the opening batsman.
Washington Sundar can never be like Shubman Gill – Sanjay Manjrekar
Talking further about India’s combination, Sanjay Manjrekar claimed that India missed an opportunity by not fielding a top-order batsman like Gill as his replacement Washington Sundar could never be as good as him.
“Nitesh Kumar Reddy performed well and thankfully that helped things. But this approach was never going to work with Washington Sundar ending up as the batsman and he was never going to be as good as A top-order batsman like Shubman Gill is that good,” he pointed out.
India fielded three batting all-rounders in their playing line-up but the combination did not work out too well for them as they struggled for extra bowling options. Sundar scored a crucial 50 points but had little to do with the ball.
Nitish Kumar Reddy slams maiden Test ton
Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar Reddy had a brilliant game with the bat as he hit his maiden Test ton. It was also Reddy’s first international century, which came in a high-profile match like the Boxing Day Test.
The young all-rounder scored 114 off 189 balls to help India move closer to Australia’s first-innings total. It remains to be seen whether India choose to bring Gill back for the final Test in Sydney.
India will be looking to strengthen their batting order after a disappointing performance in Melbourne. Gill has had an ordinary Test series so far, scoring 60 runs in two Tests at an average of 20 while batting at number three. Earlier, he missed the first Test in Perth due to injury.
