‘Ashwin giving tips to Rohit to keep himself out of the XI’: India nets before Bangladesh tie leaves Manjrekar bemused

India's optional nets session on Tuesday ahead of their World Cup 2023 match against Bangladesh revealed bemusing details about their team combination.

Players of the Indian team earned a well-deserved rest day on Monday following a spectacular start to their 2023 World Cup campaign at home, which included an emphatic win against Pakistan in Ahmedabad. Following the win on Saturday at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Team India landed in Pune on Sunday and went straight to their hotel before taking an off on the following day. India later held an optional practice session on Tuesday, but it was a packed affair at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium.

Rohit Sharma was spotted bowling to Ravindra Jadeja at the nets on Tuesday

The likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya were all present at the practice session on match day minus two - that is 48 hours prior to their fourth World Cup game, against Bangladesh.

During the innings break of the match between Netherlands and South Africa, Star Sports shared a clip of India's practice session and a particular footage from Pune left former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar bemused.

In the video, Rohit was spotted bowling to Ravindra Jadeja which initially drew a rather positive reaction from the former batter who felt that the captain was looking to offer some overs of off-spin in the match against Bangladesh while raising the topic of lack of bowling options among the primary batters, which was in stark contrast with the Indian teams of the past.

“Now that is a picture! He said that in the press conference which he had even started talking about at the start of the tournament but now we aren't because India are performing well, but it is always good to have a batsman who knows how to bowl. He has a lovely action. That is great with Rohit Sharma, the talent he possesses. And maybe India are looking for additional help with the bowling so that they can continue to have the same balance and have 3-4 overs of off-spin, especially against teams like Bangladesh who have at least 4-5 left-handers in their top 7,” he told the broadcasters.

‘Looks like India don’t want to play Ashwin'

After bowling a few deliveries, he walked towards Ashwin who had his eyes on the proceedings and the two shared a chat. Manjrekar reckoned that while the legendary spinner was giving tips to his captain on his bowling it is indirectly affecting his cause in making a place in the playing XI.

“It looks like they don't want to play Ashwin which is a big call because one of the seam bowlers will have to be dropped and they don't like Hardik being the third bowler. And this is Ashwin giving tips to Rohit and helping him to keep Ashwin out of the game in a way,” he said.

The last time Rohit bowled in an ODI match was in 2016, in a match against Australia in Perth where he rolled his arms for an over before being smashed for 11 runs. Overall, he has picked eight wickets in 98.5 overs across 38 innings in his ODI career.

Before his bowling session on Tuesday which was cut short after getting smashed all over by Hardik Pandya, Rohit, along with Shubman Gill and Kohli took on the fast bowlers in their batting session. Kohli stayed for the longest time while Hardik unleashed a couple of big hits. Ashwin later bowled to Jadeja when the second set of batters took over the batting session, while Shreyas Iyer faced throwdown specialists. Ishan Kishan, who played in the first two games against Australia and Afghanistan, was also spotted batting as he faced Mohammed Siraj and Kuldeep Yadav in tandem.