The first ODI between India and Australia is just hours from kickoff as we get things started for the 3 months-long tour. In between all this Former India opener, Sanjay Manjrekar picked his Indian playing XI for the first ODI against Australia wherein there was a shocking exclusion of left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja and instead insisted that India use him as a substitute fielder if needed.

The opening ODI will be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) in Syndey. The Indian side looks all settled yet there are questions over the initial mix, third seamer, second all-rounder and the subsequent spinner also. As we still aren’t sure if Hardik Pandya will be bowling in the tour as he didn’t bowl a single delivery in the recently concluded IPL.

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Sanjay Manjrekar Picks Kuldeep Yadav Ahead Of Ravindra Jadeja

Starting off with Sanjay Manjrekar’s choice of openers, he went in with Shikhar Dhawan and Mayank Agarwal as the openers with Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul and Manish Pandey securing the middle-order slot as each one of the top 6 batsmen have had a sensational IPL since each one of them was among the runs for the franchise.

In the pace bowling division, Navdeep Saini is probably going to be picked ahead of Shardul Thakur but Manjrekar kept a choice between the two whereas his first two choices of pacers were in the form of  Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah. In the spin bowling sector, he picked both Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal but Manjrekar is almost certain that Virat Kohli will pick Ravindra Jadeja as the second spinner in the squad after Chahal.

In the past, we have seen how Sanjay Manjrekar calling Ravindra Jadeja bits and pieces player didn’t go down too well with the all-rounder which is why we saw Jadeja calling out Manjrekar on social media for that particular statement on him. Out and all we are are aware that both of them don’t enjoy even chemistry between them.

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