Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar feels the team management’s decision to potentially replace left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav with an off-spinner for the second Test against Sri Lanka, starting at the SSC Ground on Sunday, would be an ‘understandable’ move, given the hosts’ heavy reliance on left-handed batters.
Analysis of Sri Lanka’s scoring in the first Test at Galle, where they lost to India by 165 runs, shows their four main left-handers made 300 of the 465 runs scored across both innings – which is roughly 64.5 per cent of the team’s overall runs.
In the last Test, three spinners bowling with the left arm proved to be a little bit of a problem when two left-handers got together, and we saw left-handers get runs against India in the first Test,” Manjrekar said in a video posted on his Instagram account on Saturday. With off-spin bowling all-rounder Saransh Jain in the squad, it means the Indian team can hand him a debut if the pitch in Colombo is too dry. Because that will just make the spin combination a little better, “If India play an off-spinner in place of Kuldeep Yadav, it’s understandable.
In contrast, India fielded three left-arm spinners in their XI, with Kuldeep returning modest match figures of 1-103 from 25 overs.
“So if there’s an off-spinner that comes in and a left-arm spinner is left out, it will just make the Indian spin attack a little more potent because there will be variety, and an off-spinner in Test matches with DRS and everything is almost like something that you need in a team,” he added.
