In the T20 World Cup 2024, Sanjay Manjrekar selected Team India’s best batter to date as the Men in Blue easily advanced to the Super Eight stage. One of the unbeaten teams in the group stage is Rohit Sharma and company, having defeated Pakistan, Ireland, and the United States. The soggy outfield caused their previous game against Canada to be called off before a ball was bowled.
Because of the slow pitch, the hitters had a dreary game in all of India’s league games, which were held in the USA. Senior batsmen Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were anticipated to be vital contributors with the bat, but neither was able to generate many runs. Despite failing in the next two matches, the Indian captain hit a vital half-century against Ireland. Kohli, on the other hand, scored just five runs in three innings, including a golden duck against the USA.
Rishabh Pant’s promotion to No. 3 was a successful move, even though batting legend Virat Kohli’s switch to an opener did not produce the expected results. In actuality, with 96 runs in the IPL 2024 competition, the keeper-batter—who had a fantastic campaign—is currently India’s leading scorer.
Sanjay Manjrekar said of Pant’s elevation, “What a brilliant move it has turned out to be.”
According to former Indian cricketer Manjrekar, he did not anticipate Pant to bat at number three. He agreed that Pant’s promotion up the lineup was a great team management decision. During their warm-up match against Bangladesh, India tried out the southpaw, who often bats at No. 4 or No. 5.
“They (team management) want more and more impact players, at every position down the order and Rishabh Pant, I didn’t expect him to be batting at No. 3, and what a brilliant move it has turned out to be, starting from that warm-up game against Bangladesh, when Samson and Rohit Sharma took some time to get used to the surface,” Manjrekar was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times.
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Additionally, according to the former cricket player turned analyst, Pant has been India’s finest batter thus far in the present World Cup. Manjrekar pointed out that India’s left-handed option in their top six, Pant coming at one down, was a missing component for the team in the 2023 ODI World Cup.
“Pant shown his maturity. On a challenging pitch, he has shown to be India’s finest batter thus far in this tournament, and Rishabh Pant is in a class of his own. The fact that they ranked him third insured that India would not have six right-handers, as they had in the 50-over World Cup, with Jadeja, the lone left-hander, batting at position seven,” the 58-year-old continued.
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