"Not for the 1st time bowlers won India"- Sanjay Manjrekar takes a brutal dig at Virat Kohli

Despite piling up nearly half of the Indian team's runs in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 final, Virat Kohli hasn't got any credit from Sanjay Manjrekar. 

Virat Kohli, who was playing in his final T20 international game for India, led from the front in the T20 World Cup final last night in Barbados. He played a pivotal role with the bat for the first time as an opening batsman in this WC edition in the West Indies and USA. 

Things worked out for Virat Kohli at last 

It was the very first time that Virat Kohli was operating as a full-time opening batsman of team India at an ICC event. Kohli was pushed to open by skipper Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid after seeing his sensational IPL 2024 season.

The right-hand batter, while opening with Faf du Plessis for RCB, had amassed more than 700 runs and won the Orange Cap. 

However, it wasn't the first time that Virat Kohli played as an opener for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. In the previous seasons as well, Kohli featured as an opening batter but it was this season that the Indian team management noticed. Even if the idea sounded and seemed solid, this particular move didn't prove to be fruitful at all. 

Virat Kohli did not find it any easy to score runs from the top order with Rohit Sharma, owing to the tough conditions. India's Group stages in New York saw Kohli score just 5 runs from matches against Ireland (1), Pakistan (4) and USA (0). His form seemed to have bettered when the Caribbean leg of Super 8s began but it still wasn't what we were expecting to see. 

The 35-year-old scored 24 against Afghanistan, 37 against Bangladesh, and a duck against Australia in the most important match of the last 8s. Then in the Semi-finals, every expert backed Virat Kohli to stand up for the occasion but he got out for just 9 runs. But in the final yesterday at the Kensington Oval, it all worked out for the former India captain.

Virat Kohli held on to one side of the crease solidly when back-to-back 3 wickets of Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, and Suryakumar Yadav fell. As he had said himself while receiving the man of the match award for his 76, Kohli wasn't trying to overdo anything and admitted that he was just trying to respect the situation, put his head down, and back his ability. 

What did Sanjay Manjrekar say?

Despite his match-saving knock, former Cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar doesn't consider Virat Kohli as praiseworthy. Manjrekar took to X (formerly Twitter) and gave the entire credit for India's win to the bowlers - Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, and Axar Patel. 

Sanjay Manjrekar didn't have a single mention of Virat Kohli anywhere in the tweet despite the latter winning the MOTM award. "And not for the first time Indian bowlers won India the game. Take a bow Hardik, Axar, Arshdeep, and the one and only Jasprit Bumrah." - Manjrekar wrote via his official X handle after India's win.

And not for the first time Indian bowlers won India the game. Take a bow Hardik, Axar, Arshdeep and thr one and only Jasprit Bumrah! 🙇🙇🙇🙇

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) June 29, 2024