R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja are more focused on economy than taking wickets: Sanjay Manjrekar

Team India haven’t made a fruitful start to their T20 World Cup 2021 campaign, suffering a 10-wicket defeat against Pakistan in their first assignment. This loss also brought an end to India’s long-running winning streak against their arch-rivals in World Cup events. While Indian batters did pretty well to post 151/7 while batting first on a challenging Dubai track, their bowlers let them down.

As the Men in Blue were unable to get a single wicket, a lot of questions were raised over their bowling attack. Among the spinners, Ravindra Jadeja and Varun Chakravarthy took the field but none of them were able to trouble Pakistan openers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan. In Ravichandran Ashwin and Rahul Chahar, India have two more spin-bowling options. However, neither of them were in great wicket-taking form in this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL).

Hence, it would be interesting to see what changes India would make to their bowling attack for their upcoming clash against New Zealand. Speaking on the matter, former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar reckoned the bowling will remain a concern for India unless the spinners start thinking about wickets. He also said the likes of Ashwin and Jadeja are not keen to get wickets. They instead aim to restrict the scoring rate.

I believe in T20s, the spinners’ job is to get wickets: Sanjay Manjrekar

“Ashwin, like Jadeja, is not a wicket-taker. Both are more focused on the economy than wickets. I believe in T20s, the spinners’ job is to get wickets and be the game-changer in the middle,” Manjrekar wrote in his column for Hindustan Times.

“The big concern for me is India’s bowling. I know there is merit in the thought that you must back your players after their failures, especially in T20s, but this is easier to do when you are playing a long season of the IPL and not when a couple of defeats mean all chances of winning the World Cup are down the drain,” he added.

Manjrekar further opined Jadeja isn’t some can complete his quota of four overs regularly in T20 matches. “Jadeja can be your third spinner who will bowl a few overs and not someone you depend on to bowl his full quota of four overs. He has done that only a little more than 50% of the times in T20Is, and he certainly can’t be one of your five bowling options,” he opined.