Sanjay Manjrekar is against the decision of playing Hardik Pandya only as a batsman against Australia. Manjrekar who is doing commentary during ODI match pointed out that team India lacks a specialist batsman in their line-up. After coming back from injury Pandya hasn’t bowled as he has an injury-prone bowling action.
Pandya is taking time to resume his bowling and it was believed that India might not include him in the starting XI against Australia. However, Virat Kohli and the team management opted to play Hardik Pandya which meant they only had 5 proper bowling options in the first ODI.
Unfair On Manish Pandey To Miss Out – Sanjay Manjrekar
In the pre-show of the ODI match, Sanjay Manjrekar asserted that he would have picked Manish Pandey ahead of Hardik Pandya in the squad. Manjrekar firmly believes in the principle of selecting specialists in the ODI squad and hoped to see Pandey in the squad. The former cricketer added that picking Pandya purely as a batsman is a gamble and unfair on Manish Pandey.
“Hardik Pandya not bowling and playing as a pure batsman is a bit of a gamble. Let’s hope it works out. Jadeja was to be expected. I just make selections based on principles of having specialists but this is something that is understandable. That said, it’s unfair on Manish Pandey as a pure batsman to miss out to Hardik Pandya,” Sanjay Manjrekar said during the pre-match show on India’s Playing XI.
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Meanwhile, throughout the IPL 2020 season, Hardik Pandya batted in the top 6 for Mumbai Indians and didn’t bowl a single over. The Indian selectors did not pick him in the Test squad but included him in the white-ball squads to manage his workload. Pandey on the other had a decent IPL with the bat and he also has a century to his name in an ODI match at Sydney.
“It’s important to start well as a team, we need to start strongly and set the momentum for the matches ahead. The preparations have been nice, we got some valuable time (on account of the quarantine). Mayank Agarwal will open – Manish Pandey, Shubman Gill, Shardul Thakur, Natarajan and Sanju Samson are the five players missing out,” Kohli had said about the team at the Toss.
Furthermore, Australia took full advantage of the 5 bowling options that India had and pilled on the runs. Aaron Finch and Steve Smith scored brilliant centuries as the hosts set India a mammoth target of 375 runs to win.
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