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‘Shubman Gill does not have the feel for spinners; Virat Kohli once again…’: Manjrekar lambasts star duo's approach
Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar also asserted that Rohit Sharma also looked low on confidence while playing spinners in the middle.
Indian batters were exposed again in front of spinners on a slow Pune track on Saturday as New Zealand registered a historic series win over them. In recent times, the decision to make turning tracks for the opposition has backfired on a couple of occasions for India, which was also the case against New Zealand in the second Test. Gone are the days when India had batters like Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, who used to play the spinners quite comfortably despite the nature of the wicket. The current Indian batters have often seen struggling against spinners in home conditions, which is not a good sign for them.
Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar also pointed out the Indian batters' struggles in recent times. He asserted that young Shubman Gill looked uncomfortable while facing spinners on turning tracks as he scored 30 and 23 in Pune and was dismissed on both occasions by Mitchell Santner.
"When Yashasvi and Shubman were going together, I thought that there would be a surprise around the corner. Shubman Gill clearly does not have the feel for spinners. You know batters, who can work with their footwork instinctively, he clearly is under pressure when he is playing spinners on turning pitches," Manjrekar said on ESPNCricinfo.
Manjrekar also talked about another flop show from senior batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, as the former failed to read the length and was dismissed by Santner twice. While he thinks that the Indian skipper looked underconfident in the middle.
"Virat Kohli once again misread the length. The ball was much fuller than he anticipated and came back into him sharply. Rohit Sharma was not confident at the crease. There are a lot of guys, top 3 out of 4 who are short of confidence against spin. On pitches like these, you see that it is difficult to bat vs spin in first session and a half," he added.
‘If India had not lost too many wickets earlier…’
Meanwhile, he further suggested that India failed to handle pressure and kept losing wickets at regular intervals at the start, which didn't allow the lower-middle order to put up a fight.
"I think that if India backed their defence a little more, things could have gotten easier. If India had not lost too many wickets earlier, this game could have been much closer with Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja being around," he further added.
