Former Indian batsman Sanjay Manjrekar said India should have had a specialist like Hanuma Vihari in their WTC (World Test Championship) final playing XI instead of all-rounder Jadeja. He said that having Ravindra Jadeja in the playing 11 for the WTC final backfired on India. He also added that fielding Hanuma Vihari instead could have helped them put on a few more runs to challenge New Zealand.
He said on Espncricinfo, “If you have to look at how India went about before the game started, picking two spinners was always a debatable selection especially when the conditions were overcast and the toss was delayed by a day. They picked one player for his batting, which was Jadeja, and his left-arm spin wasn’t the reason he was picked. He was picked for his batting and that is something that I am always against.”
He added, “You have got 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, that would have made sense. but they picked him for his batting and I think that backfired as mostly it does.”
He lastly said regarding the series against England ahead, “I hope India doesn’t do what England have historically done, pick somebody because there is another strength that they have and that strength might just come to good use, but very rarely it does when it’s a pressure game.”
