India looked to have achieved a good result on the fourth day of the fourth Test against Australia with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli scoring a beautiful partnership of 102 runs for the third wicket. However, a terrible mix-up between Jaiswal and Kohli resulted in the former losing his wicket. There are many theories as to who should be held responsible for Jaiswal’s sacking, but former Indian cricketers Sanjay Manjrekar and Irfan Pathan made a heated statement on broadcaster Star Sports’ afternoon show. They had an argument.
Manjrekar felt that Kohli should have taken Jaiswal’s call for a single as it was the latter who was running in a dangerous situation. However, Pathan disagreed and said the shot taken by Jaiswal was so strong that Kohli too risked a run out at the striker’s end.
“The ball was moving slowly. I don’t think Kohli got a run out. That was Jaiswal’s instruction. It may have been a dangerous run, but it was him, not Kohli, who was in the dangerous situation. “What he looked back at was Virat’s schoolboy-like mistake.”If Jaiswal had made a bad call, he would have been sent off on the non-striker’s side,” Manjrekar said.
Rakhuda between Irfan and Sanjay Manjrekar pic.twitter.com/F2huaodmBn
— Pushkar (@Musafirr_hu_yar) December 27, 2024
Meanwhile, Irfan refuted Manjrekar’s opinion and said that perhaps Kohli was not confident in hitting the ball after seeing the speed of the ball to fielder Pat Cummins. The former India all-rounder also claimed that Virat, who is a non-striker, has the right to refuse to play if he feels there is a risk.
The two former cricketers overlapped with each other at times, with Manjrekar even saying, “If you don’t want me to talk, that’s fine.”
Heated argument between Sanjay Manjrekar and Irfan Pathan, Sanjay Manjrekar was defaming Virat Kohli and Irfan Pathan was defending Virat Kohli (on Yashasvi Jaiswal’s runaway) # INDvsAUS #Virat Kohli #Yashasvi Jaiswal #AUSvINDIA pic.twitter.com/8YmOcA8JyL
— Harsh17 (@harsh03443) December 27, 2024
Manjrekar even lost his cool when Irrfan kept pushing his opinion. “Irfan Parsan’s new interpretation of whether a goal is conceded or not should be added to the coaching manual,” he said.
In the discussion that followed, Manjrekar even blamed Kohli’s firing on the “guilt” he must have felt after playing a role in Jaiswal’s firing.
“Kohli’s dismissal was probably due to the guilt he harbored in his heart over Jaiswal’s runout. Till then, he had given up on outside-off deliveries, but after the runout incident, he lost concentration. “We had lost it,” he said.
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