Asia Cup 2023: 'It Was Just Yuvraj Singh...' - Sanjay Manjrekar Backs Rohit Sharma's 'Can't Drop Pacer To Pick Yuzvendra Chahal' Remark

Former India National Cricket Team batter Sanjay Manjrekar has backed captain Rohit Sharma’s remark about not leaving out a pacer from the Asia Cup 2023 squad in order to make way for a spinner.

India have already named their 17-man squad for the Asia Cup 2023 and they have opted to go with three spinners and five pacers. Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, and Kuldeep Yadav are the spinners and Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, and Prasidh Krishna are the seamers.

Talking about the absence of Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin from the squad, Rohit Sharma had said that they can’t drop a pacer from the squad to make a space for spinner because the pacers will be playing a big role in the upcoming mega-events.

Speaking on the Star Sports/ESPN Cricinfo’s ‘Selection Day Live’ program, Sanjay Manjrekar said that during India’s 2011 World Cup winning campaign, pacers were more impactful, and among spinners, it was only Yuvraj Singh who did the bulk of the work.

“When India won in 2011, do we remember spinners getting a lot of wickets? It was just Yuvraj Singh in the middle that was used. People like Munaf Patel made an impact. Zaheer (Khan) led the attack.”

You are generally going to see flat belters – Sanjay Manjrekar

Sanjay Manjrekar further said that teams taking part in the World Cup will depend more on their pacers considering the nature of the pitches.

“Small grounds and you see certain kind of pitches in the Test series that India plays at home. But come the World Cup, the curators will be working extra hard,” he said.

“You are generally going to see flat belters; some grounds are going to be small. So your tendency is sort of to go towards the fast bowlers to control the game,” Manjrekar added.

While talking about India’s decision not to pick an off-spinner, Tom Moody said that there was no room in India’s squad and that not having an off-spinner is not a big issue.

“Both Kuldeep and Chahal are specialist bowlers. Full stop. They don’t offer anything else. They can’t bat at No. 8 and have an impact in that batting line-up to give them depth.

“I think that’s one of the things that has gone against Chahal. At the end of the day, when you are talking about no off-spinner, you’ve got Kuldeep turning the ball away from the left-handers. So, you’ve got that base covered. I don’t see a massive issue. If you had an extra spot, you may consider an off-spinner, but I just don’t think that squad needs it,” Moody concluded.