Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar wasn’t pleased with Rohit Sharma’s captaincy in the first 45 minutes of the opening day of the first Test match against England at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad on Thursday.
Manjrekar feels Rohit introduced spin quite late and he should have gone to his spinners early after Ben Stokes won the toss and decided to bat first. Rohit backed the pace duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj in the first eight overs before he got Ravichandran Ashwin into the attack.
Ashwin was quick to provide a breakthrough as he plumbed Ben Duckett in front of the wickets whereas he also accounted for Zak Crawley. Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Ollie Pope and England slipped from 55-0 to 60-3 in a space of 21 balls.
Manjrekar told ESPNcricinfo: “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.”
On the other hand, Rohit Sharma was dismissed while trying to take the attack to Jack Leach. The Indian skipper was settled after scoring 24 but could not convert his start to a big score.
“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 added that England did well to post 246 runs on the board. Ben Stokes scored a fighting knock of 70 runs to help England get close to the 250-run mark.
“The way England batted and the score that they put up—now Yashasvi Jaiswal has made that score, at the moment, look inadequate. But a team batting first on a pitch like this and considering that people like Joe Root failed, that they reached 246, was I thought was a very, very good effort. I’m impressed and excited with the possibilities after seeing this performance from England.”
At lunch on the second day’s play, India are 222-3, trailing by 24 runs.
