Sanjay Manjrekar: Don't depend on Cheteshwar Pujara

Team Indias first assignment post the COVID19forced break is a tour Down Under where they will battle it out with the Aussies in four Tests three ODIs and T20Is The challenge before them to retain the BorderGavaskar Trophy would again boil down to batting according to India batsmanturnedcommentator Sanjay ManjrekarDuring the 201819 historic series win Cheteshwar Pujara 521 runs was the only batsman to contribute This time though the team cant depend on just one batsman warned ManjrekarIn a chat with midday recently Manjrekar dwelled deep on the pace bowling combination the wicketkeeper conundrum and what it will take Virat Kohlis men to win the Test series againAlso ReadIND vs AUS Suryakumar Yadav exclusion raises eyebrows support soarsSanjay ManjrekarEdited excerptsWith no crowds this time do you expect a drop in Virat Kohlis intensityVirat is one person who feels of the energy from the crowd It is both negative as well as positive He loves the positive energy from the supporters and if there is some kind of haggling or somebody is sledging him on the boundary ropemdashlocal fansmdashthen that also spurs him on So yes he is one who feeds a lot from the crowds energy Having said that watching this IPL where there has been hardly anyone at the stadiums there is more at stake than worrying about the crowd They know there are millions of people watching especially if it is a marquee series like this That becomes a true test of the players workhellipVirat Kohlis work I dont think it will make even an iota of difference in his performance intent and overall intensityWhat should be Indias pace bowling combinationJasprit Bumrah Mohammed Shami and Navdeep Saini These are the three seam bowlers if Ishant Sharma rib injury is not fit If Ishant is fit then Saini becomes your reserve bowler I believe Saini can be almost a liketolike replacement for Ishant He is tall and bowls outside the off stump If he becomes that kind of a bowlerhelliphe has a bit of pace in the air which Ishant didnt haveI believe Saini is perfectly cut out for Test cricketShouldnt Umesh Yadav make the cut if Ishant is injuredMy view of Umesh Yadav is that he is actually a nice partnership breaker in the subcontinental conditions where the ball can keep a bit low and is quick in the air But in overseas conditions I dont think he should be a choice over Saini Even his track record overseas has not been great to deserve a placeThere is no allrounder in the Test teamThere is no hard and fast rule that we must have an allrounder We must not forget that India won the Test series in Australia without Hardik Pandya I thought the Indian team looked a lot more balanced because they had pure specialist batsmen and specialist bowlers So there was nobody in the team who could do little bit of this and little bit of that We had three seamers and one spinner We also had good six batsmen It could be a little unfair also on the players who are already there to be left out just because India wants and allrounder Who should be the firstchoice wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha or Rishabh PantWicketkeeping is a very specialised job If you drop a catch the batsman is likely to score a triple hundred Like Graham Gooch was dropped by Kiran More on 36 at Lords in 1990 and he went on to score a triple hundred So the wicketkeeper has to be very good And I have always maintained that in Test cricket especially in places like Australia England South Africa New Zealand Indias best wicketkeeper should be keeping wickets And because there will be a lot of fast bowling he should be good at keeping wickets to fast bowlers And I have no doubt that it should be Wriddhiman Saha He was injured and that is why Rishabh Pant got a chance So Saha should be picked only on the basis of his wicketkeeping and considering India have three very good seamers The slip catching has improved in the last one year where we have identified who our slip catchers are Rohit Sharma is adding some value there And that is why India should also have a good wicketkeeper complementing the slip catchers and the three seamers My word goes to Saha What are the challenges for Team India in defending the trophyIndias bowling attack is unchanged and it will still have a lot of quality like last time Cheteshwar Pujara was the one getting runs on the board for India So the team cannot depend on just one or two players to get their runs If India gets two or three reliable batsmen getting runs overseas Indiawill become the No 1 team no matter where they play because now they have three worldclass seamers at any given time which India always missed earlier But the batting is tenacious overseas In England the batting let us down In Australia Pujara saved the day for us So if India bat well then the series would be very competitive only because Steven Smith and David Warner are back in the Australian teamKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates hereAlso download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest newsill become the No 1 team no matter where they play because now they have three worldclass seamers at any given time which India always missed earlier But the batting is tenacious overseas In England the batting let us down In Australia Pujara saved the day for us So if India bat well then the series would be very competitive only because Steven Smith and David Warner are back in the Australian teamSony Pictures Sports Network will be the broadcaster of Indias tour to Australia