'I respectfully disagree with Mr. Manjrekar' - Abhinav Mukund comes out in support of Ravi Ashwin

Cricketer-turned commenter Sanjay Manjrekar is not at all new to invite controversy by his comments regarding many cricketers during his commentary stint. Over the years he has received a lot of flak and hate from the fans on social media for his not-so-good opinion regarding the poignant matters of cricket. But Manjrekar never stops from doing what he likes most – giving feedbacks.

The former batter is again at it, and this time it is regarding India’s premier spinner Ravi Ashwin. The former Mumbai player had stated that Ashwin still does not come under the category ‘Legend of the game’, owing to his lack of five-wicket hauls against SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia).

Manjrekar was seen pointing out this bit of information to ESPNcricinfo. As soon as the commentator tweeted, it got a lot of attention and naturally, as the Indian fans were disappointed to hear such comments from the cricket expert. Tamil Nadu opener Abhinav Mukund has ‘respectfully disagreed’ with Manjrekar’s comments and asked him to look at Ashwin’s overall impact against all the top teams.

‘All- time great’ is the highest praise & acknowledgement given to a cricketer. Cricketers like Don Bradman, Sobers, Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Virat etc are all time greats in my book. With due respect, Ashwin not quite there as an all-time great yet. 🙏#AllTimeGreatExplained😉

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) June 6, 2021

“I read an article today where Sanjay Manjrekar said that ‘I disagree that he is a legend of the game’. I have to respectfully disagree with Mr. Manjrekar and say he is a legend of the game because he holds several world records. The accusation towards him is that he’s never performed in SENA countries. But I think he had a fantastic tour to Australia. If you look at it that way, and if you just look at the number of five-wicket-hauls he’s taken and what an impact he’s been to as a leader, he’s probably one of the legends of the game in my opinion at least,” Mukund told stand-up comedian Sorabh Pant on his YouTube channel ‘Wake Up With Sorabh’.

Ravi Ashwin to returns to action soon

Ashwin’s rise over the years has been phenomenal as he became the fastest Indian bowler to 400 wickets in the Test format and has won several matches on his own with his stupendous wicket-taking ability.

Ashwin, in fact, had a good tour Down Under, where he picked 12 wickets in three games and also showed his batting class in the third Test by stubbornly defending balls and denying Australia a win.

Clearly, Ashwin would love to answer Manjrekar’s comments with a thumping performance against New Zealand in the World Test Championship Final (WTC) which begins on June 18.