Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar opined that the retirement of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from Tests hasn’t impacted the team much in the IND vs ENG series. The veteran duo decided to call it a day in Test cricket abruptly just before the start of the England series. Despite the absence of Ro-Ko, India have managed to put up commendable batting performances in 4 Tests so far, with contributions coming in from most of the top seven batters.
“Virat, Rohit weren’t contributing”
Speaking on JioHotstar, Manjrekar explained that Rohit averaged 10 in his last two Test series while Virat’s average had dipped to 30 over the last 5 years. He claimed that India did not suffer a huge loss by the absence of the duo simply because they weren’t contributing much to the side. The ongoing series against England marks the first time in a decade that India are playing without Rohit or Kohli.
“Rohit Sharma was averaging 10 in the last two series that he played, and Virat Kohli was averaging 30 in the last five years. So they were perhaps not easy to replace, but it wasn’t like it was a huge loss. It was a loss of two very senior players, but not a loss of contribution, because they weren’t contributing as much,” Manjrekar explained.
Further, Manjrekar said that India had done very well to keep themselves alive in the series. He said that it would be interesting to see England’s mindset heading into the final Test rather than pondering on what would be the mood in the Indian team.
“I think India have given a great account of themselves. They’ve kept the series alive, and it’s certainly interesting to see the mood in the bus on the England bus when it goes down to London compared to the Indian bus on the way down to London. As we see Shubman Gill here in a league of legends, as it said, and certainly has the opportunity to go to the top of that sort of leaderboard there, and I wouldn’t bet against it,” Manjrekar added.
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