'It was a loss of two very senior players, but they weren't contributing as much': Sanjay Manjrekar on Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli's absence on England tour

Former India cricketer-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar is not known for mincing words. After The fourth Test of Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025 ended in a draw, Manjrekar lauded the Shubman Gill-led side for keeping the series alive. He feels that Gill has entered the league of legends in his first Test series as captain.

He has amassed 722 runs in the series already, including four Test centuries and is expected to break records in the fifth Test as well. For England, only Jamie Smith (424) and Joe Root (403) have more than 400 runs in the series.

"If you're taking the Joe Root out of the side or taking two experienced players like India have had to retire recently, it would be a very, very different scenario. I think India have given a great account of themselves. They've kept the series alive, and it's certainly interesting to see the mood in the bus on the England bus when it goes down to London compared to the Indian bus on the way down to London. As we see Shubman Gill here in a league of legends, as it said, and certainly has the opportunity to go to the top of that sort of leaderboard there, and I wouldn't bet against it," he said on JioHotstar.

ALSO READ: 'Absolutely ridiculous... that conversation should be shut down': Ben Stokes disagrees with Gautam Gambhir batting for injury replacement

Manjrekar was asked whether this team is missing former captains Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli who recently retired from Test cricket, he said that their presence is missed but not the contributions with the bat.

In his last Test series, Rohit scored 46 runs from five innings. On the other hand, Kohli scored 190 runs from nine innings in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. His notable performance in Australia on previous tour was an unbeaten century in the opening Test at Perth Stadium.

"Rohit Sharma was averaging 10 in the last two series that he played, and Virat Kohli was averaging 30 in the last five years. So they were perhaps not easy to replace, but it wasn't like it was a huge loss. It was a loss of two very senior players, but not a loss of contribution, because they weren't contributing as much," he explained.

ALSO READ: 'I don't think there would've been too much satisfaction from walking off a hundred not out': Ben Stokes still rattled by Ravindra Jadeja refusing to accept draw

Gill's chance to break records

Meanwhile, Gill has a chance to break the all-time record for most runs in a Test series which is held by legendary Don Bradman with 974 runs in Ashes 1930. Also, he needs 53 more runs to break legendary Sunil Gavaskar's record (774 runs) for most runs in a test series by an Indian batter.