Sanjay Manjrekar has slammed Ravindra Jadeja for not using the conditions on day 05 in the first test of India’s tour of England 2025, where he went on to pick one wicket across both innings in the first test.
The veteran spinner’s inability to use the conditions on Day 05 caught the attention of pundits. Talking to the JioHotstar, Manjrekar said the track had rough patches that Jaddu could have exploited, and more was expected from an experienced campaigner like him.
“It’s not fair to be overly critical of younger players like Prasidh Krishna — there are obvious areas for improvement. But I am going to be critical of Ravindra Jadeja. This was a final-day pitch with rough patches for him to exploit. And while there were a couple of chances, we have to expect more from someone of his experience,” said Manjrekar.
Sanjay Manjrekar felt that the conditions on day 05 weren’t like the usual ones in England and the senior all-rounder didn’t use the rough well against Ben Duckett and it was only late into the England opener’s knock that he started to employ the trick.
“These weren’t typical English conditions where the pitch offers nothing. I felt he didn’t use the rough nearly enough — especially against Ben Duckett. Against Ben Stokes, yes, he did make an effort. But it was only much later in Duckett’s innings that Jadeja started using the rough properly,” said Manjrekar.
Manjrekar went on to say that we expect a higher level of tactical awareness from a player like Jaddu.
“When you’re dealing with experienced bowlers and seasoned batters, you expect a higher level of tactical awareness. Somewhere, I felt Jadeja was disappointing. The seamers had no help from the surface — but Jadeja at least had something in the pitch working in his favour,” said Manjrekar.
THe second match of the five match test series will play their second test starting on 02 and 06 July 2025 at Edgbaston, Birmingham.
