Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar labeled Indian captain Virat Kohli as someone who is a little hard to understand with his overall strategies and team selections. Kohli was criticized on Day 1 of the first Test for picking Shahbaz Nadeem over an established Kuldeep Yadav.
Akshar Patel was supposed to make his Test debut against England in the first Test with Kuldeep forced to sit out. However, an injury to him right before the start of the game meant that Kuldeep might finally get to roll his arm over after months of warming the benches.
However, Virat Kohli sprung up a surprise picking Shahbaz Nadeem who was with the team as a standby bowler. Manjrekar believes that picking Nadeem was a good call but the bowler was blamed after he failed to perform on a pitch tailor-made for him.
IND v ENG 2021: "Not losing toss, but spinners let India down in first Test," says Sanjay Manjrekar
Sanjay Manjrekar told ESPNCricInfo, "I wouldn't say India had bad tactics or they blundered on tactics. Team selection I think was fair. People are talking about Kuldeep Yadav now because Shahbaz Nadeem hasn't bowled well. This was a tailor-made pitch for him."
"Tactically, the small parts of the game where Washington Sundar I think bowled the wrong line to begin with. He is a great guy to bowl outside off stump and when he did that, it troubled the opposition batsmen. That's where Virat Kohli is a little hard to understand, with his overall strategy and team selection," he added.
The 55-year-old felt that the Indian bowlers weren't allowed to have the fields they wanted initially. Also, England was tactically better than India in the first Test according to Manjrekar.
"His first few overs (Nadeem), he had two people on the drive. Maybe the bowlers weren't allowed to begin with to bowl to the field that they wanted. But more than tactics, India's ability in this match fell short and they would want to make amends in the second Test. Tactically, England was superior but I won't say that India blundered tactically," he added.
