Sanjay Manjrekar has opined that Ravichandran Ashwin did nothing much in two crucial matches and the team paid a price for his return to India’s ODI plans after they suffered a 3-0 defeat in the ODI series against South Africa. Ashwin picked only a single wicket conceding 121 runs in two fixtures.
India recently lost a three match ODI series against South Africa by 3-0. The opposition was better in all departments. For India, their bowling was not very effective in the first two fixtures and they paid a price with defeat. Ravichandran Ashwin returned to the ODI squad after a gap of five years but failed to make any impact in the first two matches of the series.
In the first ODI, he picked a single wicket conceding 53 runs. In the next match he returned wicketless and conceded 68 runs in his spell. Reflecting on the series loss, former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar opined that the team paid the price for Ashwin’s return to the ODI plans as he did nothing much in the first two matches.
“Ashwin strangely came back into India’s ODI plans for some reason. India paid a price for that. He played the two crucial games, did nothing much. (Yuzvendra) Chahal also under the scanner. Prasidh Krishna needs to be backed a bit more. Also, in 50-overs, Mohammed Shami can be a good option,” Manjrekar said to ESPNcricinfo.
Manjrekar also added that Deepak Chahar should be preferred over Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
“Bowling wise, Bhuvneshwar Kumar had given signs even before this series that he is finding it difficult to get back to his best. I guess that issue is closed after seeing his performance in the series. And Deepak Chahar, the one ball to get Janneman Malan, should tell selectors that he is a better option,” he elaborated
Summing up India’s tour to South Africa, Manjrekar opined that it has to be one of the poorest Indian tours to South Africa.
“The way the match ended sums up the whole trip for India. It has to be one of the poorest Indian tours to South Africa. That’s how it was destined to be. It just wasn’t India’s time in South Africa. It is a bad loss,” he concluded.
