After losing the Boxing Day Test, which put him in a precarious position in the campaign for the World Test Championship Final, Sanjay Manjrekar criticized India's team combination at MCG. To bolster their bowling, India selected Washington Sundar, a spin bowling all-rounder, in place of Shubman Gill for the pivotal match. The visitors were bowled out for just 155 in the second innings after collapsing under duress during the 340-run chase. They sensed that there was not an additional expert batter on the surface, which is not very helpful to the spinners.
Manjrekar slams selection calls
India's decision to select bowling all-rounders like Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy over specialist batter Gill did not impress Manjrekar. He believes the Nitish gamble paid off, though, as the young all-rounder saved the visitors in the first innings with a spectacular century.
"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.
"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.
Manjrekar on Bumrah
The former cricket player added that Jasprit Bumrah's skill set differs greatly from that of other Indian bowlers, such as Mohammed Siraj, and that the current Indian bowling attack does not appear to be strong enough to compete with Australia.
"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.