Sanjay Manjrekar picks his India playing XI for first ODI vs Australia; excludes Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja

Indian cricket team will resume international duties with the India tour of Australia. They would be up against the Kangaroo nation in the first One Day International of the three-match series in Sydney on November 27. Ahead of the highly-anticipated series, former Indian cricketer-turned analyst Sanjay Manjrekar picked his playing XI for the opening encounter.

For the opening slot, Manjrekar went with the new duo of Shikhar Dhawan and Mayank Agarwal. Rohit Sharma is unavailable for white-ball cricket, hence making way for Mayank. The veteran decided against making KL Rahul open the innings as he believes that India needs a good middle-order and Rahul will provide stability to the batting line-up.

For the third and fourth spot, Sanjay went with the obvious choice of skipper Virat Kohli and swashbuckling batsman Shreyas Iyer. He feels that Rahul has scored consistently at fifth position in past few games for India, thus that would be an ideal place for him.

However, the renowned commentator surprised the fans by picking Manish Pandey and Kuldeep Yadav instead of power-hitter Hardik Pandya and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. Both Pandya and Jadeja have done exceedingly well for the Indian team and perfectly essay the role of a finisher.

Sanjay Manjrekar justifies his decision of not picking Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya

Backing his decision, Manjrekar explained that he doesn’t fancy experimenting with Hardik as a specialist batsman in ODIs. Instead, he would pick Manish Pandey, who had proved his mettle on Australian soil. Speaking about Jadeja, the analyst opined that from his personal experience he will go with a spin specialist Kuldeep.

When someone on Twitter pointed out Jadeja’s excellent fielding skills, the 55-year-old joked saying that the all-rounder can be used as a substitute. As far as other bowlers are concerned, Sanjay picked Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Yuzvendra Chahal and one between Navdeep Saini and Shardul Thakur.

Sanjay Manjrekar’s India XI for 1st ODI:

Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Manish Pandey, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini/Shardul Thakur.