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Sanjay Manjrekar is getting trolled for excluding Jadeja from his playing XI

Photo of Unnati Madan Unnati MadanAugust 11, 2021
49 2 minutes read
Sanjay Manjrekar

Former Indian cricketer turned commentator Sanjay Manjrekar is one of the most controversial personalities in the cricket world. He is known for giving his bold opinions on various topics related to cricket and because of the same, he often finds himself at the receiving end of criticism.

Time and again, Manjrekar has managed to grab headlines for his controversial opinions on the performances of India’s star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. It all started when, in 2019, Manjrekar had called Jadeja a bits-pieces cricketer’, someone who doesn’t fulfill the need of a proper player. His remark for Jadeja drew a lot of criticism towards him.

Later on, Jadeja tweeted some sharp lines for Manjrekar where he asked him to stop with his ‘verbal diarrhea’. Not just this, Jadeja gave a great response to Manjrekar’s unnecessary criticism by playing arguably In the semi-final match, he scored 77 runs off 59 balls. Following his half-century in that match, he was seen doing his famous ‘sword celebration’ while targeting the commentary box. Ever since then, both the cricketers haven’t gone down well on good terms. Manjrekar still continues to criticize Jadeja’s performances but gets trolled back by the fans.

Now ahead of the upcoming second Test match against England, Manjrekar has once again managed to stir a debate as he decided to exclude Jadeja from his playing XI. It is very weird because Jadeja played a crucial knock of 56 runs in the first innings of the first test match.

In his playing XI, Manjrekar went with KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma for the opening position. Followed by them, Manjrekar picked India’s Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara at the number 3 position. Indian skipper Virat Kohli and the vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane were picked for number 4 and 5 positions. In order to have a specialist batsman in the playing XI, Manjrekar decided to go with Hanuma Vihari. He said:

“Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul will be my openers. At No. 3, I will want to play Pujara. We didn’t get to see a lot of his batting in the second innings but I will still want to play him. Then Virat Kohli will be No. 4, Ajinkya Rahane No. 5. A slightly controversial selection because I will like to get a specialist batsman at No.6, some depth in the batting because two or three batsmen are out of form and the ball moves a little as well in England.”

Further, he picked Rishabh Pant at number 7 and said that Pant coming at that position could be more effective at this position. He also picked Ashwin, who was missing from the playing XI of the 1st test match. He said:

“I feel if Rishabh Pant comes at No. 7, he can prove even more dangerous and can play very well with the tail-enders. I am playing Vihari because the last Test match he played, he batted for 2.5 hours to save India.”

He added:

“I will like to bring in Ashwin, who I feel was dropped wrongly in the first match. I am bringing a bowler who has greater chances of taking wickets on a good pitch. I will play three seamers – Shami, Bumrah. I don’t know if Ishant is fit but I will go with Siraj because he has the capability to take five wickets,”

Meanwhile, Manjrekar’s decision of not picking Ravindra Jadeja in his playing XI didn’t go down well with the fans, who are trolling him left, right, and center on Twitter.

Here, check out how Twitterati reacted to this:

 

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Photo of Unnati Madan Unnati MadanAugust 11, 2021
49 2 minutes read
Photo of Unnati Madan

Unnati Madan

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