The highly entertaining Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy between India and England ended nearly two weeks ago, with both sides sharing the spoils; however, the opinions and post-series analysis continue to pour in, with experts and former cricketers chipping in with their views. This time, it’s former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar who called the series entertaining and great from the fans’ perspective but has criticised the bowling attack of both teams.
In his column for HT, Manjrekar wrote, “Great series for fans, yes great result for Indian cricket lovers yes, great advertisement for Test cricket yes, but what about quality? Was the cricket of the highest quality?.
“No, it wasn’t. For starters, sorry to burst the bubble, it has to be one of the weakest bowling attacks from both sides that I have seen in a series featuring two main stream teams. The one bowler with great skills and ability had a bizarre approach to playing in this series even before it began, so bowling greatness or excellence was seen very sporadically over 175 hours of Test cricket,” he added.
No one is indispensable
Manjrekar felt that India should have won the series 3-1 and reflected on “how bad England” were in their home series. He also said no player in a sport is indispensable while referring to star Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah.
Bumrah, who already had informed BCCI about his fitness issue and his limited availability ahead of the series, has been drawing flak after Mohammed Siraj ended up playing all five Tests and was pivotal in India drawing the five-match series 2-2. The World No. 1 Test bowler played the Headingley, Lord’s and Manchester Tests while missing out on Edgbaston and The Oval Tests. Incidentally, India went on to win both these Tests.
Manjrekar wrote: “The second point I will make is this, that the game will always show us the mirror however much we try and gloss over things. It was poetic justice that the two Tests India won were two matches Bumrah did not play. This should embolden the Indian selectors to make some hard choices when it comes to big-name players. This series has been a great lesson to them and to us too, the two Tests victories India achieved did not feature Virat (Kohli), (Cheteshwar) Pujara, Rohit (Sharma), (Mohammed) Shami and Bumrah too! It reminded us of the eternal truth of sport and life, no one, however great, is indispensable.”
“And this is how India must handle Bumrah,” he added.
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Bumrah must adjust
As per the former Mumbai batter, Indian cricket should not adjust for Bumrah and it has to be the other way around.
“As for Bumrah, of whom I am a fan, if he really wants to serve Indian Test cricket, longevity and durability is an imperative for him, it’s after all the true test of a great athlete is to still turn up when not 100% fit and deliver,” wrote Manjrekar.
“Indian cricket must not adjust for Bumrah, Bumrah must. That is, if he wants to,” he added.
