Sanjay Manjrekar discloses three key areas of improvement for India after 76-run loss to SA

Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has listed out three key areas of improvement for the defending champions, Team India, after their 76-run defeat to South Africa in their first Super8 clash of the ongoing mega event.

Speaking exclusively on his official Instagram handle, Manjrekar made it clear that India’s major issue is their batters' struggle against spin. He went on to point out that someone like Tilak Varma, who is struggling to score runs, should come down the order instead of his designated No.3 slot.

“A big defeat to India against South Africa. So, the first strong team that India has played, and they have not really coped well against that team. But the good news is that India is not out of the tournament,” Manjrekar said on his Instagram handle.

"So what South Africa have done--and we have to be humble and respect the opposition and in a way thank them--is that they have shown us three areas of improvement that we can still work on and end up getting into the final rounds and hopefully win the title," he added.

"The first area of concern is an obvious one: India is struggling against spin. So how do you solve that? Try to rearrange the batting order in a way that naturally good players of spin are batting up the order, and people like Tilak Varma, who is struggling a little bit, can come down the order," he said.

Delving into the details of the second concern, Manjrekar disclosed that the Indian batters were failing to create an impact when the pace bowlers were taking the pace off, as seen in Suryakumar Yadav’s case against the Proteas.

"The other thing which was glaring in this game against South Africa was even the pace bowlers, when they take the pace off, Indian batters are struggling. The captain seemed like the one who struggled most now when the pace is taken off,” he observed.

Also, Manjrekar reckoned that India needs to bring in Kuldeep Yadav to strengthen their bowling attack alongside Varun Chakravarty, who had a rare off-day. India will next take on Zimbabwe on Sunday, March 1, in Chennai.

“The third is an easily solvable problem. When the batting is uncertain, not firing, very often you try and get more batting depth. There's another way to cover that weakness, and that is by having a stronger bowling attack. So get Kuldeep Yadav in. Varun can have a bad day, as we have seen. If Kuldeep Yadav had played today, who knows, against David Miller, India could have got a wicket at that time,” he asserted.

"So yes, try and make a change that is possible and immediately effective, and then work on the more sort of complex problems of getting the batters to get better against spin and when the pace is taken off. So three major areas of improvement. If done quickly, India still have a great chance of getting into the final rounds," he concluded.

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