'Never Going To Be As Good As A Top-Order Or Gill': Manjrekar On India Star

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has criticised the Indian cricket team for its selection for the fourth Test vs Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Rohit Sharma and co. had dropped Shubman Gill for the game at MCG to make place for spin-bowling all-rounder Washington Sundar. India went on to suffer a 184-run defeat in the game as the batters failed to even take the game to a draw. Disappointed with the result, Majrekar pointed out that India shouldn't have dropped Gill.

"You tried to address the batting uncertainties by getting a bowler who can bat. Nitish Kumar Reddy in the side at the expense of Shubman Gill or maybe Washy (Washinton Sudar at the expense of Gill). So, they left out a proper batter and in hindsight, you'd think on a pitch like this, the flattest pitch on all five days so far in the series, Shubman Gill would have been handy," Manjrekar told ESPNcricinfo.

While Nitish scored a historic century in India's first innings, Washington scored 55 runs across two innigns while also taking one wicket.

"Nitish Kumar Reddy did well and thankfully that help mattered. But it's an approach that never works where Washington Sundar in the end was playing as a batter, and he's never going to be as good as a top-order batter like Shubman Gill," he added.

Jasprit Bumrah outshone everyone with his impeccable bowling skills as he accounted for 9 wickets in the game, but India failed to take advantage of that and eventually suffered a massive defeat.

"There is a huge difference between Bumrah and the rest. Siraj, despite him being around and he's a fine bowler, but there's still a big distance between Siraj and Bumrah. Plus, when you look at Mitchell Starc and Siraj, Akash Deep and Scott Boland, overall the (Australian) seam attack is looking a lot better. Nathan Lyon as a spinner in these conditions is better than Washington and Ravindra Jadeja. So India will go into the final Test match knowing that their bowling attack is not adequate," said Manjrekar.