IND vs BAN: Rohit Sharma does not trust Ravindra Jadeja? Questions raised on the captain during the Kanpur Test
The first day of the Kanpur Test between India and Bangladesh was washed away by rain. On the first day of this Test, which started on Friday, September 27, only 35 overs could be played, in which the Bangladeshi team, batting first, scored 107 runs for the loss of 3 wickets. Team India won the toss and captain Rohit Sharma decided to bowl first but this move did not seem to work much. The fast bowlers did not get the help that the Indian team had expected and chose to bowl first. Questions have already started arising on this, but famous commentator Sanjay Manjrekar has drawn attention to a different issue, which puts Rohit Sharma's captaincy in the dock.
The match at Green Park Stadium started late due to rain. The conditions in Kanpur were windy, so the Indian team management probably decided to bowl first, which is very rare in a Test match on any ground in India including Kanpur. Even after 9 years, in a Test match played in India, the captain of Team India won the toss and decided to bowl first. In such a situation, the decision of Rohit came under question. Then Team India did not get quick successes as expected and only 3 wickets were taken in 35 overs.
Captain Rohit used 4 bowlers during this period, in which all three fast bowlers and Ravichandran Ashwin bowled these 35 overs. In this, pacer Akash Deep took 2 wickets and veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took one wicket. That is, left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja did not get to bowl even a single over, and former Indian batsman and commentator Sanjay Manjrekar has raised questions about this decision of Rohit. This question is about not making Ravindra Jadeja bowl against Bangladesh's top order full of left-handed batsmen.
Manjrekar mentioned some of Ravindra Jadeja's statistics in a post on the social media platform 'X' and wrote that these need to be shown to Rohit. These statistics were from the 2016 Test series between India and England, in which Jadeja had taken the wicket of left-handed batsman and former England captain Alastair Cook 6 times in 8 innings and conceded only 75 runs against him. Manjrekar wrote that whenever a left-handed batsman is at the crease, Rohit never puts Jadeja on bowling early.
The first four players in Bangladesh's batting order are left-handed batsmen. It is generally believed that right-handed off-spinners should be used against left-handed batsmen because they bowl away, while left-handed bowlers are often avoided because left-handed batsmen can bat more easily against them. Based on this logic, this decision seems right for once, but it is not that left-handed bowlers cannot make that impact. Jadeja has also made left-handed batsmen his victim 102 times out of 299 Test wickets in his career. In such a situation, Manjrekar's question seems justified for once.