Sanjay Manjrekar chastised India's team combination at the MCG following their 184-run defeat in the Boxing Day Test, putting the side in a difficult position in the World Test Championship Final race.
India discarded Shubman Gill for the critical match and instead opted for a spin-bowling all-rounder in Washington Sundar to bolster their bowling. The visitors crumbled under duress throughout the 340-run chase and were bowled out for 155 in the second innings. They felt the lack of an extra specialist batter on the pitch, which doesn't help the spinners.
Therefore, Sanjay Manjrekar remained unimpressed with the Indian team's decision to drop Shubman Gill for Washington Sundar and Nitish Reddy. He said that it was good for India that Reddy played well, but Sundar’s performance was below par.
"You tried to address the batting uncertainties by getting a bowler who can bat. Nitish Kumar Reddy in the side at the expense of Shubman Gill. So, they left out a proper batter and in hindsight, you'd think on a pitch like this, the flattest pitch on all five days so far in the series, Shubman Gill would have been handy," Manjrekar told ESPNCricinfo.
Manjrekar claimed that having Sundar would have never filled the spot for top-order star Shubman Gill.
"Nitish Kumar Reddy did well and thankfully that helped matters. But it's an approach that never works where Washington Sundar in the end was playing as a batter, and he's never going to be as good as a top-order batter like Shubman Gill," he added.
Another gripe of Manjrekar was how Jasprit Bumrah was the lone warrior when it came to the Indian bowling attack. He stated that there is a big difference between the quality of Jasprit Bumrah and other Indian bowlers, including Mohammed Siraj.
"There is a huge difference between Bumrah and the rest. Siraj, despite him being around and he's a fine bowler, but there's still a big distance between Siraj and Bumrah. Plus, when you look at Mitchell Starc and Siraj, Akash Deep, and Scott Boland, overall the (Australian) seam attack is looking a lot better. Nathan Lyon as a spinner in these conditions is better than Washington and Ravindra Jadeja. So India will go into the final Test match knowing that their bowling attack is not adequate," he added.
