Former India batsman-turned-commentator, Sanjay Manjrekar, responded to queries tweeted by the fans on his Youtube channel, including an important question whether the form KL Rahul has shown in white-ball cricket in recent times should see him replace vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane as India's new Test No.5.
Manjrekar believes Rahane, even though not the batsman he was say four years back, is still good enough to keep his place in the Test match line-up.
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"KL Rahul has been brilliant at number five. Yes granted, Rahane doesn't look the same player he was in the first two years of his Test career and I would like to see that kind of form coming back," said Manjrekar.
"It comes in little sparse, sometimes, but not as consistently as he would like. But based on his runs that he has got, I don't think it is right to think of Rahul at number five in Test matches."
Manjrekar played down the option of Rahul, who last played Tests on the tour of West Indies in August 2019, replacing Rahane, given that the right-hander from Karnataka is yet to regain his mojo at the first-class level, with his defensive technique on an alarming decline for a while now.
"The last time he (Rahul) played Test cricket, he wasn't that impressive and let's not get too carried away with a batsman getting runs in T20 and 50 overs cricket and push into Test match cricket."
"So, (for) KL Rahul to nudge the Indian batsman at the Test level in the middle-order, he will have to get a truckload of runs at the domestic level, just like (Mayank) Agarwal did to get in the Indian team."
Looking ahead to India's next Test challenge in Australia later this year, Manjrekar said Rohit Sharma should return to the opening slot, having missed the tour of New Zealand earlier this year with an injury.
"The last time India played a test match (in Australia), Rohit Sharma wasn't available. (Prithvi) Shaw and Mayank Agarwal were the opening batsmen," he said.
"And I thought, Shaw with the kind of technique that he has in those kinds of conditions, those pitches, a bit okay, actually more than okay."
"But if Rohit Sharma is fit and then he comes in Mayank Agarwal and Rohit Sharma actually would be the openers and Prithvi Shaw would be your second option," Mankrekar stressed.
Responding to another query, Manjrekar gave his opinion on the idea floated around of having split captaincy in Indian cricket, with Virat Kohli continuing as skipper in Test matches and perhaps Rohit taking over in the white-ball versions.
"Now, my theory of split captaincy is that you don't go looking to have split captaincy. So if you are fortunate to have a captain, who is good in all three formats and still a good captain, then you don't need split captaincy."
"At the moment, you have Virat Kohli, who is excellent in all three formats, so there is no need for India to look at split captaincy, there might come a time in the future, who knows India might start looking for split captaincy," he said.
"If India comes to a situation where they have an excellent test captain and test player, but not good enough to be in 50 over and T20, then maybe you have a different captain."
"But, India at the moment are quite blessed and in the past as well, Dhoni was the same, when he was captaining all three formats, he was pretty good in all three formats," Manjrekar concluded.
(Inputs from PTI)
