Sanjay Manjrekar has his doubts surrounding Venkatesh Iyer as an all-rounder

The focus switches back to the Indian cricket team who will be playing their first ODI series in several months. The first ODI against South Africa commences on January 19 and KL Rahul will be leading the side in the absence of newly appointed white-ball skipper Rohit Sharma.

Venkatesh Iyer, who proved to be the breakthrough star of IPL 2021 has been included in the team and is expected to receive protagonism during the series. Iyer has been touted as a suitable white-ball all-rounder and is being groomed to play that role more frequently.

However, ahead of the ODI series, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has expressed his reservation regarding the utilization of Venkatesh Iyer as an all-rounder. He reckons India should play five specialist bowlers in the opening encounter against South Africa.

In a video posted by ESPN Cricinfo, Manjrekar suggested that although Iyer is not a pure all-rounder, he can be used for four and five overs in the middle. “I believe India should go with five bowlers. Venkatesh Iyer could be the sixth bowling option. Yuzvendra Chahal and Jayant Yadav will be spin-bowling options with pacers Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar as the other specialist bowlers.

“I’m not sure Venkatesh Iyer is an all-rounder yet. But he is maybe someone who can chip in with 4-5 overs. But I think there’s something special about his batting,” he said.

Although Iyer made his T20I debut for India in the series against New Zealand on home soil in 2021, this is his maiden ODI call-up. Despite playing the role of an opener to perfection for his team Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL, he was utilised as a finisher during the T20I series.

Sanjay Manjrekar considers India to be the favourites to win the ODI series. Despite the recent setback in the Test series where they lost by a 2-1 margin, India will have the upper hand going into the limited overs format. Batting has been a bit of a concern for the side during the recent three Tests but that isn’t expected to be an area of concern during the ODIs.

“It’s hard to call but I believe India are stronger. They had a few weaknesses in their batting in Tests but have a very good white-ball side.”