'Great Captaincy' - Sanjay Manjrekar praises Steve Smith for his tactical decisions in third Test

Australia steamrolled India on Day 3 of the third Test at the Holkar Stadium in Indore, as they easily chased down the target of 76, thereby winning the match by nine wickets. Steve Smith donned the captain’s hat in the absence of Pat Cummins, who had to fly back home to be alongside his ailing mother. 

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar was highly impressed with Smith’s tactical decisions during the match, which worked wonders for Australia. He especially credited him for bringing Starc into the attack against Shreyas Iyer who’s a good player of spin.

"Great captaincy too from Australia's Steve Smith in the way he got Starc into the attack. They realised Iyer is so good against spin, let's try him against pace,” said Manjrekar on Star Sports.

Manjrekar further said that he was disappointed to see Jadeja come ahead of Shreyas Iyer in both the innings. 

"It has just disappointed me in the last and this innings as well that Jadeja came ahead of Shreyas Iyer. You can't be doing that for left-right combination. You've got a proper batter, even if he is a right-hander,” said Manjrekar.

Manjrekar stated that Australia had two quality off-spinners bowling and not 2-3 left-arm spinners, hence, sending Jadeja ahead of Iyer was not needed as the right-hander is a good player of spin.

Sending Jadeja ahead of Iyer did not make any sense to me: Sanjay Manjrekar

"And Jadeja coming in as a left-hander, I can understand when you have 2-3 left-arm spinners like Bangladesh used to have in the past. Here you have two quality off-spinners bowling. It did not make any sense to me. Iyer has a great feel for spinners so you want him ahead in the line-up. And he has shown his class,” the 57-year-old further said.

Meanwhile, Australia have qualified for the final of the World Test Championship, following their win in the third Test. The series scoreline now stands at 2-1 in the favour of India with one match to go. India need to win the final Test to qualify for the WTC final which will be played from June 7, at the Oval in London. If India somehow manage to lose , they will have to depend on Sri Lanka losing one Test in their upcoming series in New Zealand.

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