Sanjay Manjrekar, the former Indian batsman, has credited Kohli for embracing the new Indian batting approach whereas, Aakash Chopra has said that the road for Shreyas is not completely closed. He will still come back into the team. Let me write a short blog about Manjrekar on Kohli and Chopra on Shreyas.
“They should celebrate because class is back. Virat Kohli has had some first-hand experience of this new approach of India in T20 cricket in England. So he has embraced that, not with great success, but he has embraced that. You have got to give credit to Virat Kohli.”
“He didn’t care about whether he was getting runs or whether he was getting out because he desperately needed runs in England and he is looking for international runs but he still sort of backed up the Indian team’s new philosophy. He was trying to hit boundaries from ball number one.”
These are Manjrekar’s words. I do not one bit subscribe to his views. Let me explain. Yes, Kohli has been an exceptional batsman for India for well over 10 years. Some of his contributions, especially in the short format is legendary. It is also true that he is currently struggling for form. The Indian team under Rohit and Dravid is looking to play white ball cricket in a certain way. Ofcourse, they are too late already because all the top teams are already playing that way for a few years now.
To say that Kohli has embraced the new approach is completely wrong. It is not for Kohli to decide. He is not the captain. It is the management team of which I am sure Kohli is also part of, that decides the batting method. It is insulting to Kohli to say that he has embraced the new approach.
Kohli the ultimate team man
If at all there is one thing that Kohli can never be accused of, it is playing for the team and by that extension the nation. Let us remember that it was Kohli who brought about the fast bowling revolution in the country. He backed fast bowlers and that is showing in terms of the volume of bowlers who are now India-ready. He is also the one who brought the 5 bowlers theory into practise.
The point I am trying to make is that Kohli is never averse to change. Manjrekar seems to portray that Kohli is a reluctant to change. Not only that, Kohli has the game to not only embrace the new approach but completely runaway with it.
Chopra on Shreyas
Shreyas Iyer’s international numbers from the last World Cup are outstanding. His name is not here (Asia Cup) but he has a very strong case. He has played 17 matches after the T20 World Cup, 479 runs at an average of nearly 40 and a strike rate of 140. In my understanding, he is not completely out of the race.”
Shreyas has been found out at the highest level. That is the plain fact. I remember quite vividly, the batting of Vinod Kambli. When he made his debut, he scored bucketful of runs. Consecutive double hundreds and a couple of hundreds. There was a point during which his average will not come down to below 100. Everyone thought that he was a better batsman than Sachin Tendulkar.
Come the West Indies tour and Courtney Walsh, Kambli, the roaring tiger, became a pussy cat. He was ill-equipped against the short ball that during the entire tour, he became a laughing stock. He lost his spot and was never seen again in the Indian Test team.
Much the same is true of Shreyas as well. He is a sitting duck against the bouncer. He is incapable of hooking and is incapable of getting out of the line. It really is a shame that the Indian Ranji bowlers never tested this weakness of Shreyas. How was he allowed to score all those runs for Mumbai is beyond me?
He is ungainly even on the flat pitches of India. What is he going to do when the ball bouncer more? India just cannot afford to have someone who is a suspect against bouncers on the tour of Australia.
Wrapping up Manjrekar on Kohli and Chopra on Shreyas
Kohli does not need any motivation to play the game in a certain way. He is completely capable of doing that by himself. Whereas Shreyas, I am afraid he will go the Kambli way.