Sanjay Manjrekar Prevents Virat Kohli from Batting at No. 3

Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar talked about the batting positions for the Indian cricket team in the second Test match against New Zealand. Rohit Sharma led the Indian team lost the first match by a margin of 8 wickets and is looking forward to rebound in the second Test match which will be played in Pune.

Shubman Gill missed the first match of the series as he was unfit. This allowed Sarfaraz Khan to make his spot in the team, as he scored 150 runs in the third innings of the game, helping India to establish a significant lead. He made the most of the opportunity given to him, even after being dropped for the test against Bangladesh.

Sanjay Manjrekar said that KL Rahul is likely to be dropped by the team if Shubman Gill is fit to play in the second match. He also said that Virat Kohli should not be batting at the third spot if Shubman Gill is available for the team. Further, he continued saying that KL Rahul’s batting order should be promoted for better results.

Talking to ESPNcricinfo, Sanjay Manjrekar said that,

It’s a little unfair for somebody like a Virat Kohli to keep batting at number 3. Maybe, you know, because KL Rahul is looking so lost, maybe push him to number 3 and just free him up a little bit and let Virat go back to number 4.

KL Rahul scored just 12 runs in the first test, after being dismissed for a duck in the first innings. Although Virat Kohli was also dismissed for a duck, he went on scoring 70 runs in the next inning, marking his comeback with a stable partnership with Sarfaraz Khan.

He also talked about Ravichandran Ashwin not using the new ball in the second innings of the Kiwis, to which he said,

Yeah, I think that’s a huge sort of piece of news from that Test match. Should have bowled with the new ball if you ask me in that second innings.