Ravindra Jadeja was picked for his batting in WTC final, but it backfired: Sanjay Manjrekar

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has said that Ravindra Jadeja was included in the playing XI of the WTC final because of his batting, but the plan went awry, adding that experts like Hanuma Vihari could help India add some more runs to the board. could help.

Manjrekar said Jadeja, who scored 31 runs (15 in the first innings and 16 in the second) in the historic match, was not picked for left-arm spin bowling in poor English conditions.

Manjrekar told ESPNcricinfo, “If you want to see how India was doing before the game started, choosing the two spinners was always a debatable matter, especially when the conditions were bad and the toss was delayed by a day. “

“He picked a player for his batting, which was Jadeja, and he was not picked because of his left-arm spin. He was picked for his batting and that is something I am always up against.”

“You have to pick specialist players in the team and if they felt that the pitch was dry and turning, they would have picked Jadeja for his left-arm spin along with Ashwin, it would have been understandable. But they picked him for his batting and I think he backfired, as happens most,” Manjrekar said.

“If they had a specialist batsman for example in Hanuma Vihari who had a very good defense, it would have been easier. Maybe 170 could have been 220, 225 or 230, who knows?” he added.

“But I hope India won’t do what England has historically done, pick someone because they have another strength and that strength can just come to good use, but very rarely it happens when it There is a pressure game,” he said.

On the reserve day of the rain-hit match, India lost 32 runs in the first innings and then were bundled out for 170 in the second innings. With almost 2 sessions to go, New Zealand chased down a target of 139 on Wednesday with 8 wickets to spare.