Jadeja can’t be one of your five bowlers” – Manjrekar slams Kohli for dropping Chahal and Kuldeep

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has stated that Ravindra Jadeja shouldn’t be one of India’s five bowlers in the ICC T20 World Cup. He suggested India should play the all-rounder as only a sixth bowling option while slamming skipper Virat Kohli for not backing Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.

In his column for Hindustan Times, he wrote that Hardik Pandya should be viewed as a pure batter because of his inability to bowl.

“Jadeja can be your third spinner who will bowl a few overs and not someone you depend on to bowl his full quota of four overs. He has done that only a little more than 50% of the time in T20Is and he certainly can’t be one of your five bowling options.

“But for that India MUST feel that Jadeja can replace a batter in the playing XI and then be your 6th bowling option. The team will have a better balance then.”If Hardik is not going to bowl he must be given the status of a pure batter and your expectation from him must be like you have from a pure batter.”

Sanjay Manjrekar criticized Kohli for dropping genuine wicket-takers Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.

“That defeat to England in the 2019 World Cup in England is a significant moment in the recent history of India’s white-ball cricket. It’s the last match India played, with two spinners in the squad looking for wickets.”But Virat abandoned that potent winning formula of having spinners who were wicket-taking and more importantly bowling only to get wickets. That’s what Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal would do…”

After dumping R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, interestingly after a defeat to Pakistan, this time in the Champions Trophy final in England in 2017, India have gone back to them again. Ashwin, like Jadeja, is not a wicket-taker. Both are more focused on the economy than wickets. I believe in T20s, the spinners’ job is to get wickets and be the game-changer in the middle.”