Sanjay Manjrekar feels KL Rahul should be India’s pick for No.5 position in ODIs

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has backed KL Rahul saying the latter is the most suitable batsman to play at the No.5 position whenever India play in the ODIs. He also suggested that the Indian middle order needs batsmen like Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh and advised the team management to look into it.

Rahul, who had a long period without runs in the previous few years, came back strongly in the recent times and has been scoring across formats. He was the man of the series in the T20I series in New Zealand and also got runs in the ODIs before getting overlooked for the Tests and the decision met a backlash. Rahul has also been keeping wickets for India in the limited-overs which has given the team flexibility.

Recently, the legendary Brian Lara picked KL Rahul as his favourite cricketer. Rahul, however, found his batting positions more fluid in recent times as he was made to float between opening and middle-order with injuries to players like Shikhar Dhawan.

Sanjay Manjrekar, who was recently dropped by the BCCI’s from its commentary panel, was speaking to fans over Twitter on cricketing issues. He was asked whether India should stick to the Karnataka batsman as the No.5 batsman in ODIs or go for anybody else.

“For the moment he is the right fit. But we must keep looking for a Raina and Yuvi kind of batsman when Rahul eventually moves to the top,” the 54-year-old, who played 37 Tests and 74 ODIs for India, said. Raina and Yuvraj had been two of India’s frontline limited-over players when they featured regularly in India’s playing XI.

Manjrekar picks Shreyas at No.4, Hardik as all-rounder

Sanjay Manjrekar was also asked during the conversation who he thinks was the right choice for the No.4 position and all-rounder’s spot in the T20 World Cup which is due in Australia later this year. The former batsman picked Shreyas Iyer and Hardik Pandya for the respective roles

Iyer was also in good nick in New Zealand like Rahul while Hardik missed the tour because of injury. Rahul later played the semi-final of the Ranji Trophy against Bengal at the Eden Gardens but could score only 26 and zero in the two innings.