Team India needs Kuldeep Yadav back to solve middle overs crisis: Sanjay Manjrekar

Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar mentioned that India’s bowling attack in white-ball cricket has been lacking the wicket-taking options that had created success in the past. A lot of things didn’t go right in the recently-concluded South Africa tour and it has popped up a lot of questions on the team selection. Indian bowlers failed to defend a score of 287 in the second ODI as they never looked like creating enough opportunities to win the contest.

Meanwhile, India faced an early exit in the T20 World Cup 2021 and the bowling has most often let them down especially while defending moderate scores. Yuzvendra Chahal and R Ashwin combinedly picked up two wickets in the first two ODIs at a dismal economy rate. While Ashwin was replaced by Jayant Yadav for the final ODI, Chahal did end up playing the final game and finished with figures of 1 for 47 in 9 overs.

Sanjay Manjrekar calls for game-changing spinners in the middle overs

Manjrekar noted that the India have very successful in ODIs due to the impact of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav combinedly picking up wickets in middle overs and felt the need for it again. He added that Ravindra Jadeja or Jayant Yadav might not be more suited to that role as they are more of defensive bowlers.

“You look at the bowling attack and think what does this team needs? All it needs is the concept that got India to win a lot of 50 over matches when Kuldeep Yadav and Chahal were together, taking wickets in the middle. In the end, teams weren’t posting 300 plus that the Indian batters would chase down.” Sanjay Manjrekar told ESPN Cricinfo

“India needs spinners who can be game-changers in the middle overs. We have to wait and see if Chahal still has it in him. Kuldeep Yadav is somebody, I think India still have to go to. I don’t think Jayant Yadav kinds or even Jadeja for that matter are game-changers in the middle. That’s what India need” he added

Meanwhile, South Africa a narrow four-run defeat in the final ODI after  India were cruising with the bat at a stage and the bowlers stepped up to restrict the hosts to 287 all out. With this defeat, the Men in Blue suffered a 3-0 defeat in the ODI series.