Asia Cup 2022: After PATCH UP with Ravindra Jadeja, Sanjay Manjrekar says THIS about all-rounder

India vs Pakistan: Ravindra Jadeja was the joint top-scorer in India’s win over Pakistan in the first game, scoring 35 and putting on a crucial partnership with Hardik Pandya, who scored 33 off 17 balls to complete the win.

Photo: PTI

Team India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and former India batter-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar had a long-standing feud after the latter called him a ‘bits-and-pieces’ cricketer. The feud came to a hilarious end after Manjrekar and Jadeja buried the hatchet during the post-match interaction after the India vs Pakistan Asia Cup 2022 match.

Jadeja was the joint top-scorer in India’s win over Pakistan in the first game, scoring 35 and putting on a crucial partnership with Hardik Pandya, who scored 33 off 17 balls to complete the win. The all-rounder was sent to bat in No. 4 position with India choosing to bring in Dinesh Karthik to replace Rishabh Pant.

Jadeja was the only middle-order batter who was a southpaw and Manjrekar feels that his promotion was not a ‘gamble’.

“Yes. Very good move and I loved it. And I don’t think it was a gamble. It wasn’t a wild card because Pakistan were bowling two spinners, one leg spinner and a left-arm spinner, Mohammad Nawaz and Shadab. So, they were going to bowl for a while and that’s what Babar did,” Manjrekar said on SPORTS18’s daily sports news show ‘Sports over the top’.

Sanjay Manjrekar : You are ok to talk with me, right ?

Ravindra Jadeja : Ya ya absolutely (laughter)

P.S : Success makes you a bigger person _#AsiaCup2022 #INDvPAK #AsiaCup
pic.twitter.com/qCuUvfWaU4 — _________________ ____ (@MSDianMrigu) August 29, 2022

“It was like they bowed one over spell or two over spell. A left-hander coming in would just make things a little difficult. The ball also, pitch looked green, but the ball was turning, so the spinners were going to make an impact. So that was pretty good,” he added.

Manjrekar added that Team India could be looking at Jadeja as a ‘batting all-rounder’ in the future. “Also, there was another long-term clue or a thought that could come in, is that now slowly in white ball cricket, Jadeja could now be looked at as a batting all-rounder. He bowled 2 overs, but if he’s going to take important positions in the batting order and make the kind of contribution that he did against Pakistan then, Wow! He fits in perfectly.

“So, you’ve got Hardik Pandya as the extra bowler, then Jadeja can be your push-in if one of the seamers don’t bowl well. So going up the order and him also delivering are great signs for India where there we are seeing slowly a transition of Jadeja becoming more of a batting all-rounder in white ball cricket,” he added.