Pune: India’s captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Gautam Gambhir after New Zealand won the second test cricket match against India, at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, in Pune, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (PTI Photo/Kunal Patil)
India was in a precarious situation when they lost Rishabh Pant for a run out chasing 359 runs on Saturday in the second Test at Pune. The side was reduced to 127/4 when the wicket fell. India then opted to promote Washington Sundar up the batting order in place of Sarfaraz Khan.
“The move to have Sarfaraz Khan bat down the order and sending Washington Sundar above him because he is a left-hander, those kind of things shouldn’t happen,” said former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar on ‘ESPNcricinfo’. Sarfaraz batting at number four in the Bengaluru Test scored a quick-fire 150.
“It’s just bizarre. That’s one thing that Rohit Sharma needs to be careful of…the T20 thinking of matchups left hand-right hand combinations. I think he should just go by the overall quality and ability of players.” Manjrekar added. However, Sundar also scored a sublime 152 for Tamil Nadu against Delhi in the Ranji Trophy coming into the Test match.
Not the first time
This has been not the first time Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir opted to juggle the batting order based on match-ups. Earlier in the year in the ODI series against Sri Lanka, the side opted to promote the left-handers who lacked experience up the order pushing the players with pedigree like KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma down the order.
“In my opinion in ODI cricket because it allows you more time since the scoring rate or even if you are setting a target it is not so steep, left-hand and right-hand combination might not work all the time. So you need to put in the batters who are good players of spin bowling whether it is Shreyas Iyer or KL Rahul,” said Saba Karim speaking to The Indian Express at the time.
“I thought KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer were some of the best players of spin bowling instead of letting them play in their settled positions and change their positions then seemed it had not worked in India’s favour,” he added.
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First uploaded on: 27-10-2024 at 13:33 IST
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