“We have to be humble” - Sanjay Manjrekar reveals three key areas of improvement for India

Former Indian cricketer and commentator Sanjay Manjrekar has revealed three key areas of improvement for the Men In Blue after their 76-run defeat to South Africa in their first Super8 clash of the showpiece event.

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Speaking on his official Instagram handle, Manjrekar reckoned that India should be humble and respect the opposition. Delving into the details of the concerns, Manjrekar felt India’s major issue is their batters struggling against spin, adding that someone like Tilak Varma, who is struggling currently, needs to come down the batting order.

“A big defeat to India against South Africa. So, the first strong team that India has played, and they have not really coped well against that team. But the good news is that India is not out of the tournament,” Manjrekar said on his Instagram handle.

"So what South Africa have done--and we have to be humble and respect the opposition and in a way thank them--is that they have shown us three areas of improvement that we can still work on and end up getting into the final rounds and hopefully win the title," he added.

"The first area of concern is an obvious one: India is struggling against spin. So how do you solve that? Try to rearrange the batting order in a way that naturally good players of spin are batting up the order, and people like Tilak Varma, who is struggling a little bit, can come down the order," he said.

Furthermore, Manjrekar asserted that the Indian batters were failing to create an impact when the pace bowlers were taking the pace off, as seen in the Super8 clash between these two sides when Suryakumar Yadav struggled against slower balls.

"The other thing which was glaring in this game against South Africa was even the pace bowlers, when they take the pace off, Indian batters are struggling. The captain seemed like the one who struggled most now when the pace is taken off,” he observed.

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Moving forward, the former cricketer reckoned that India needs to bring in Kuldeep Yadav, to strengthen their bowling attack alongside Varun Chakravathy, who had a rare off-day against the Proteas.

“The third is an easily solvable problem. When the batting is uncertain, not firing, very often you try and get more batting depth. There's another way to cover that weakness, and that is by having a stronger bowling attack. So get Kuldeep Yadav in. Varun can have a bad day, as we have seen. If Kuldeep Yadav had played today, who knows, against David Miller, India could have got a wicket at that time,” he asserted.

"So yes, try and make a change that is possible and immediately effective, and then work on the more sort of complex problems of getting the batters to get better against spin and when the pace is taken off. So three major areas of improvement. If done quickly, India still have a great chance of getting into the final rounds," he concluded. 

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