Former Indian batter turned commentator; Sanjay Manjrekar had slammed the coaching methods of Gautam Gambhir. The 43-year-old took over from Rahul Dravid who led the side to the T20 World Cup title win with Rohit Sharma at the helm. Sanjay Manjrekar has called out Gautam Gambhir for not backing players.
Manjrekar during his chat on Star Sports said, “The team management under Rahul Dravid backed players after a few failures. They were not dropped and were given confidence. However, the situation has changed since Gautam Gambhir became India’s head coach.”
The former India batter also said, “He is not backing players. Harshit Rana was dropped just one ordinary match in Adelaide. He would have been great over here in Sydney." Harshit Rana made his Test debut during the opening game in Perth but went wicketless in the next match which saw Akash Deep take his place.
Sanjay Manjrekar speaks about Virat Kohli’s struggle
Speaking on Star Sports, former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar touched upon the struggles faced by Virat Kohli. The former India skipper has failed to score runs barring his century during the second innings at Perth. Kohli was out for 17 and six and was dismissed by Scott Boland on both occasions.
Manjrekar said, “I mean, he's gone back and he's inside the batting crease. Now that is a very rare thing for Virat Kohli to do. You know, Virat Kohli loves getting outside the batting crease going forward. He's tried everything within his capabilities and on this occasion he tried being inside the batting crease, same result”
“What do you do? And Mark Nicholas makes a good point about him now having clear self-doubt with what has happened and with the sameness of the end for every innings,” further added Manjrekar.
The veteran Indian commentator ended by saying, “Lots of greats have gone through a rut, but not in the fashion where they've got out to one particular shot and the great has not been able to find a way.. There's another quick point I want to make if you see that dismissal and you've got to feel for Virat Kohli. There were occasions when he was trying to leave balls outside the off on this occasion, after many years, you see that he's actually deep inside the batting crease.”