Sanjay Manjrekar
Sanjay Manjrekar

Former India cricketer turned commentator, Sanjay Manjrekar has backed two premier batsmen, Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane to perform well on the upcoming tour of England.

Meanwhile, India will play against England across all the formats after playing two T20Is against Ireland. Manjrekar also believes these two batsmen need to return to their prime to support Virat Kohli.

Virat Kohli & Co will play three T20Is and ODIs each before moving to the Test format. Both the teams will square off in a five-match Test series starting on August 1.

Manjrekar feels England are quite beatable at their backyard. He also added they are the only top team who are beatable at home.

England lost to Pakistan three times in the last couple of trips. Pakistan won two Tests in the last tour and this time, they have won another one. At home, England is a very beatable side now. It is one of the only top teams that tend to lose at home. So, India has a very good chance,” Manjrekar said to Sportstar.

Murali Vijay India vs Afghanistan 2018
Getty Images

However, he feels India’s concern is only batting, as they are too reliant on Kohli in challenging conditions. He believes these areas need attention ahead of the tour.

According to me, India’s only concern is its batting. It relies too much on Kohli of late on overseas tours and that issue needs to be addressed. But these observations are not for Asian or sub-continent conditions but for places like England, New Zealand, Australia or South Africa,” he added.

Rahane and Vijay needs to do well

Manjrekar further added Vijay, and Rahane needs to fit the form if India wants to have a positive result. He also resonated that it was because of Vijay and Rahane’s consistency that India did well on overseas tours in the past.

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Ajinkya Rahane
BCCI

On previous overseas campaigns, the Indian batting looked good because Murali Vijay was in top form. Ajinkya Rahane was very consistent. These were the batsmen who delivered for India consistently on all the overseas tours. Rahane and Vijay are not the same players today. So, it is important that they get back to prime form. If they do, Virat will get some support, otherwise, batting will be an issue. (Shikhar) Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara have shown us that when it comes to overseas Test matches, they don’t make as much of an impact with the bat,” he concluded.

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