Sanjay Manjrekar predicts India’s T20 World Cup lineup with audacity:
Sanjay Manjrekar predicts India’s T20 World Cup lineup with audacity: Sanjay Manjrekar, a former Indian cricket player, thinks that Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma will open the batting with each other in the T20 World Cup. In the series against the West Indies, Dhawan captained the Indian ODI team. He has been in great form in the 50-over format. Manjrekar said on the Sports18 show Sports Over The Top that, besides Dhawan, Gill and Ruturaj Gaikwad will be challenging Rahul for the top order spot.
Manjrekar’s Predictions
“Shikhar Dhawan will open. Shubman Gill and Ruturaj Gaikwad are the other guys who will be pushing KL Rahul and you know the team management as options. So, it will be about somebody making a personal sacrifice from KL Rahul’s standpoint thinking from only his angle. We’ve seen over the years that when he opens the innings, he gets a big one when he bats down the order at 5 or 6 obviously he doesn’t get that opportunity. But then where do you back Shubman Gill? Shubman Gill can bat at number 3. I think Shubman Gill is also somebody that India can start looking as a batter down the order in Test cricket. So, all these things are being tackled and we’ve seen right through our coverage of Indian cricket. These are the talking points for us. Then there are so many options, so many permutations and combinations that have worked for India. And you know India have managed to win despite making all kinds of changes,” he said on Sports18.
Dhawan hasn’t been with the main Indian T20I team for a while, and he has only played in T20Is when the main team couldn’t. In 2021, Dhawan led a young Indian team to Sri Lanka while Virat Kohli’s team was getting ready for a series in England. The left-standing hander’s on the national team went down because of the way he plays, which is to lead the Indian innings.
“There’s Ruturaj Gaikwad, there’s Shubman Gill, there’s Shikhar Dhawan, there’s KL Rahul and wild cards such as Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan opening the innings. So, take your pick but from KL Rahul’s standpoint because he wants to be one of the integral members of the T20 World Cup, batting at the top of the order gets the time to get a feel of matches.” Sanjay Manjrekar further added on the number of options that India had at their disposal at the moment.