India begin their Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign against Australia on Friday, in Perth, and will hope to find some form. Led by Rohit Sharma, they were recently whitewashed by New Zealand at home, but will be without their regular skipper in the first Test.
Jasprit Bumrah will be the stand-in skipper but Rohit is currently on paternity leave. For the opening Test, India are expected to go with only one spinner and Ravichandran Ashwin is expected to be in the playing XI. Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar Reddy could make his Test debut, and the pair are expected to slot in at No. 7 and 8 in the batting order.
Speaking on ESPNcricinfo, former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar was asked if it was worrisome to see them at no. 7 and 8 in the batting order. He said, “It does. Ashwin had that innings in Sydney where we had that drawn game but generally if you look at his batting performances overseas, whether it’s England, South Africa, Australia, compared to his batting performances in India, there’s a big difference.”
While batting in Tests, Ashwin has registered most of his runs in India (1989). The veteran has bagged 384 in 10 matches in Australia, 114 in Bangladesh, 261 in England, four in New Zealand, 205 in South Africa, 226 in Sri Lanka and 291 in West Indies.
Sanjay Manjrekar backs India star to replace R Ashwin
Backing another player for Ashwin’s spot, he added, “Yes, for me it was a no-brainer, and the thing that a lot of people get influenced by is just the name, stature and that is the challenge for people who have that job to go beyond that and actually look at current form, the record of that person and make the right choice, and not get too influenced by basically stature of a player. For me Washington Sundar as an off-spinner or one spinner would have been the better choice.”
Other than at home, Sundar has only played Tests in Australia. He has appeared in one match, registering 84 runs across both innings. His highscore is 62.
