Sanjay Manrekar slams Rohit Sharma's captaincy on Day 1 of Hyderabad Test

Former Indian cricketer turned commentator and expert analyst Sanjay Manjrekar was not impressed with the captaincy of Rohit Sharma on the day of the 1st Test against England here in Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. The visitors after suffering a dramatic middle-order collapse, were able to put 246 on the board which at one point looked highly off the cards.

Sanjay Manjrekar feels that England pulled off a fantastic end to their 1st innings with the bat given the type of pressure they were under in the 2nd and 3rd sessions. He also feels that opposing skipper Rohit Sharma was not spot on with the tactical side of the game and blamed him for not introducing spinners earlier than he did.

As the first 8 overs were bowled by the duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, the English batters were displaying Bazball in full flow as Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley took charge and scored runs rapidly, scoring over 3 runs per over.

They completed the first 50 tuns within the blink of an eye but it wasn’t long until Rohit Sharma introduced spinners to the front. The veteran Ravichandran Ashwin would first remove Ben Duckett for 35 off 39 in what was the 4th time the former picked the Englishman’s wicket and then number 3 Ollie Pope departed cheaply for just 1 by Ravindra Jadeja before Ashwin removed the other opener – Crawley for 20 off 40.

The following wickets of Johnny Bairstow, Joe Root, and Ben Foakes were picked up by spinners with Axar Patel removing Bairstow and Foakes while Jadeja registered his 2nd of the day by claiming the Root for 29 off 60. Ben Stokes scored an emphatic 70 runs but he ended up as the final wicket of the day with England getting all out for 246.

While many were satisfied with the way spin had its say on the game, Sanjay Manjrekar wasn’t happy with Rohit Sharma for bringing spinners late into the 1st innings and didn’t see any ruthlessness in his captaincy.

“I like to see ruthless captaincy, and Rohit Sharma bowling eight overs of seam and 41 runs on the board before the first ball of spin was bowled wasn’t ruthless captaincy. In the same way, Ben Stokes giving the ball to somebody like Tom Hartley. If you had to go with spin with Yashasvi Jaiswal there as a danger player, he could have started off with Jack Leach, the more experienced spinner, and somebody like Joe Root.” – Manjrekar said.

Manjrekar Sheds Light On Rohit Sharma’s Poor Dismissal And Hails England’s Character

Sanjay Manjrekar went on to state that Rohit Sharma could have avoided getting out the way he did and could have just defended the ball instead of going down the track off Jack Leach’s tempting delivery. He also hailed the character shown by Ben Stokes’ led England for being able to register at least 246 runs after the middle-order collapse.

“He will be very disappointed. I made the same observation that I did with Joe Root. Guys like Joe Root and Rohit Sharma, who are not insecure in defence in these kind of conditions, they can afford to not be that aggressive because when you’re looking to hit the ball in the air, there is an element of risk, which is understandable for somebody who doesn’t have the confidence to survive just by defending.” – Manjrekar concluded.