Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar reckons reigning champions Chennai Super Kings should have no doubt in dropping Chris Jordan for their Thursday’s match against Mumbai Indians. Jordan hasn’t been able to deliver the goods for the defending champions and he has been expensive in the death overs.
The fast bowler from England had a tough day at the office in the previous match against Gujarat Titans. Jordan conceded 58 runs in 3.5 overs he bowled against the Titans.
Rashid Khan took Jordan for three sixes and a four in the 18th over of the innings and he gave away 25 runs, to turn the match on its head. Jordan doesn’t have a great IPL record as he has scalped 27 wickets in 28 matches and he has conceded his runs at a high economy rate of 9.32.
The 33-year-old pacer has failed to hit the right line and length in the death overs and hasn’t been able to come up with the goods.
In fact, Dwaine Pretorius had done a good job for CSK in the couple of matches he played earlier in the season.
Sanjay Manjrekar told ESPN Cricinfo, “When you see a player’s form, people think he has played just two three matches. But that’s just this season. He’s been playing for a long time for a lot of franchises and his IPL performances have been the same always. They’ve bowled very few economical or game-changing spells.”
Manjrekar added: “So they should have no qualms in dropping Chris Jordan because his long-standing performance in the IPL isn’t great. They have (Dwayne) Pretorius, (Mohammed) Asif, or the Under-19 fast bowler (Rajvardhan) Hangargekar, etc, and can play anyone because they won’t get hit any worse.”
On the other hand, Ruturaj Gaikwad got back into form for CSK as he scored 73 runs against Gujarat Titans whereas Ambati Rayudu also scored 46 runs from 31 balls.
“They were a bit unlucky to lose because the way Rashid Khan played, that won’t happen often. I saw Ruturaj Gaikwad’s batting, there was a lot of murmur about him being out of form but guys like Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad, when they are in form, they score big scores and not just 20-30 runs. So that’s good news for CSK. Ambati Rayudu also scored a few runs and the shots he’s known for were also on display. So the batting does look better.”
Sanjay picked CSK as a favorite against MI as he said, “Four-time champions because I don’t see any hope here (MI) whereas some good things are happening there (CSK).”
CSK and MI will face each other on Thursday in El-Classico of IPL.
