Sanjay Manjrekar backed by fans for claiming R Ashwin needs to emulate Ravindra Jadeja

England, on the back of skipper Joe Root’s majestic batting special in Chennai, defeated India by 227 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the four-match Test series. Several questions were raised regarding the nature of the pitch at Chennai. Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar described the pitch as a “flat turner” and also cited his reasons behind India’s heavy defeat.

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Sanjay Manjrekar blames R Ashwin, Shahbaz Nadeem’s fitness for defeat

Sanjay Manjrekar certainly enlightened many of his followers on Twitter by claiming India lost the first Test at Chennai because of the “fitness of their spinners”. He believes that Indian spinners, namely R Ashwin, Shahbaz Nadeem and Kuldeep Yadav do not have the “physical strength”, unlike Indian speedsters and batsmen who look “world-class on the field”.

Fans also pointed out that Sanjay Manjrekar had praised Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja in his latest column by believing that his overall fitness is the reason behind his success in Test cricket and asked the likes of R Ashwin to learn from him. Many of them agreed with Manjrekar's assessment, claiming that India should rather play 3 fast bowlers rather than an extra spinner if they aren't able to trouble the English batsmen much.

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Ravindra Jadeja injury update

Coming to the Ravindra Jadeja injury update, the cricketer has been ruled out of the entire India vs England Test series. He is yet to recover from the thumb injury he sustained during the third Test against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) in January. In Jadeja’s absence, here is a look at the complete Indian line-up for their ongoing Test series against England.

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Jadeja vs Manjrekar feud

Sanjay Manjrekar mentioning Ravindra Jadeja came as a surprise for many as the former Indian batsman has been quite critical of the all-rounder. Back during the 2019 World Cup in England, the commentator said that he is not a fan of Jadeja and even called him a “bits and pieces” player. Later, Manjrekar was subjected to much criticism from fans of the senior all-rounder.

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Image source: BCCI Twitter and PTI