Sanjay Manjrekar has made a bold remark ahead of India's five-match Test series against Australia. The former India batter was asked about India's chances of winning the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after having previously won the Test series on their previous two Australia tours when he made strange remarks, terming star India batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli as the weak links of Indian batting.
The ex-cricketer who was known for his textbook technique belives Rohit and Virat are past their prime. He added that Rishabh Pant is the only batter who has hit his prime and will be critical to India's chances in the series.
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"It might be a tough one. Virat and Rohit, both are not in their prime, they are not at the peak of their powers to be fair and others like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubhman Gill have to rise to the occasion. Rishabh Pant is the only one that I feel is in his prime and a very important player," Manjrekar said while speaking on SportifyWithPRG.
It is pertinent to note that Rohit happens to be Team India's leading run-scorer in Tests since 2020. He has scored 2038 runs at an average of 41.59 with the help of six hundreds and seven half-centuries. Kohli, however, might have showed signs of struggle with 1745 runs at an average of 33.55 in the same period with two centuries and eight half-centuries.
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Manjrekar, who can be tough to impress as a cricket pundit, did look happy with India's bowling arsenal for the Australia tour. He also said that it is the not the same Australian side anymore which had the aura of champions.
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"India is sorted ... As for the Australians, the aura and ability they had in the past, where every game they played, they were like champions, is not there anymore," the 59-year-old stated.