Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar reckons skipper Rohit Sharma should decide his batting order on the basis of the quality of players and not go with match-ups like in T20 cricket. Manjrekar questioned Rohit’s decision to promote Washington Sundar ahead of Sarfaraz Khan in the second innings of the second Test match at Pune, which India lost by 113 runs on Saturday.

While Sundar batted at number nine in the first innings, he was promoted to number six in the second essay ahead of Sarfaraz, who batted at number seven. The left-hander scored an unbeaten 18 in the first dig while he was dismissed after scoring 21 in the second innings.

Sundar was coming into the second Test on the back of a fine 152 for Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy clash against Delhi.

Sanjay Manjrekar said on ESPN Cricinfo, “The move to have Sarfaraz Khan bat down the order and sending Washington Sundar above him because he is a left-hander, those kind of things shouldn’t happen. It’s just bizarre. That’s one thing that Rohit Sharma needs to be careful of…the T20 thinking of match ups left hand-right hand combinations. I think he should just go by the overall quality and ability of players.”

On the other hand, head coach Gautam Gambhir has been slammed by a lot of cricket boffins for the series loss against New Zealand but Manjrekar feels the criticism is unfair as the coach has minimal influence on the team.

“I will still maintain that the coach has the minimal influence on a team, lesser than your 11th weakest player. He does not set foot on the ground, the captain is in-charge out there. But you have to applaud him for Washington Sundar’s selection, which was an immediate hit.”

The third and final Test match between India and New Zealand will be played at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai from November 1 onwards.