Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar has reacted to India’s heavy 76-run loss to South Africa in the T20 World Cup 2026 Super 8s stage. This loss has put India in a panic mode when it comes to semi-final qualification.
South Africa made 187/7 in 20 overs thanks to David Miller’s half-century and valuable contributions by Dewald Brevis (45) and Tristan Stubbs (44*). In response, Marco Jansen took four wickets as India was shot out for 111 runs, with Shivam Dube making 42.
Manjrekar, in a video on his Instagram account, gave India a stern reality check and asked them to “be humble” and quickly address key flaws to stay in title contention.
“A big defeat for India against South Africa. So, the first strong team that India has played, and they have not really coped well against that team. But the good news is that India is not out of the tournament.
So, what South Africa has done—and we have to be humble and respect the opposition and, in a way, thank them—is that they have shown us three areas of improvement that we can still work on and end up getting into the final rounds and hopefully win the title,” Manjrekar said in his Instagram video.
Manjrekar demanded a change in the batting order, citing India's difficulties against spin as the main issue.
“The first area of concern is an obvious one: India is struggling against spin. So how do you solve that? Try to rearrange the batting order in a way that naturally good players of spin are batting up the order, and people like Tilak Varma, who is struggling a little bit, can come down the order,” he said.
He also flagged the team’s vulnerability against slower deliveries by pacers, including from captain Suryakumar Yadav.
“The other thing that was glaring in this game against South Africa was even the pace bowlers; when they take the pace off, Indian batters struggle. The captain seemed like the one who struggled most now when the pace was taken off,” Manjrekar stressed.
One valid point that Manjrekar made was that instead of India padding on more batters, they should instead bring in one more wicket-taking bowler, preferably Kuldeep Yadav, into the XI.
“The third is an easily solvable problem. When the batting is uncertain, not firing, very often you try to get more batting depth. There's another way to cover that weakness, and that is by having a stronger bowling attack. So, get Kuldeep Yadav in. So yes, try and make a change that is possible and immediately effective, and then work on the more complex problems… If done quickly, India still has a great chance of getting into the final rounds,” he concluded.
Here is the video:
India will face Zimbabwe on February 26 in Chennai, and will then face the West Indies on March 1 in Kolkata in their next two Super 8 matches.
