Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has explained that the retirement of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in Test Match hasn’t hurting India badly in the IND vs ENG series.
Speaking on JioHotstar, Sanjay Manjrekar has said that Rohit Sharma was averaging a dismal 10 in the last two Test series that he played, while ace batter Virat Kohli was averaging 30 in the last five years and although they weren’t easy to replace, their retirements haven’t been a huge loss to India. It was a loss of two very senior players, but not a loss of contribution, because they weren’t contributing as much,”
Manjrekar explained “I think India have given a great account of themselves. They’ve kept the series alive, and it’s certainly interesting to see the mood in the bus on the England bus when it goes down to London compared to the Indian bus on the way down to London. As we see Shubman Gill here in a league of legends, as it said, and certainly has the opportunity to go to the top of that sort of leaderboard there, and I wouldn’t bet against it,”
Having conceded a 311-run lead and lost their openers for ducks in the second innings, India displayed resolve to get a favourable result because of the efforts of Gill (103 off 238), KL Rahul (90 off 230), Jadeja (107 not out off 185) and Washington (101 not out off 206).
In the absence of Rohit and Kohli, Test skipper Shubman Gill led India’s batting charge twice, first in the Birmingham victory over England, then in the Manchester draw that kept the series alive.
Former England batter Jonathan Trott said while speaking on Sony Sports, he admitted that had the scenario been reversed, England wouldn’t have managed to pull off the same. “If you’re taking the Joe Root out of the side or taking two experienced players like India have had to retire recently, it would be a very, very different scenario. I think India have given a great account of themselves,”
“They’ve kept the series alive and it’s certainly interesting to see the mood in the bus on the England bus when it goes down to London compared to the Indian bus on the way down to London,” Trott added.