‘He is talking rubbish’: Kris Srikkanth ‘does not agree’ with Sanjay Manjrekar’s remarks on KL Rahul’s selection for Australia Tests

Former India captain Kris Srikkanth does not agree with Sanjay Manjrekar’s view that selectors did not do the right thing by including KL Rahul in India’s Test squad for the tour of Australia on the basis of a good IPL. A day after India’s squads for all three formats was announced, Manjrekar on Twitter said that it is a ‘bad precedent to recall a player for Tests on IPL performance’ before going on to highlight Rahul’s average outings in India’s last few Test series.

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Srikkanth, the former chairman of selectors, however, has dismissed Manjrekar’s claims as ‘rubbish’, saying the batsman has ‘played well in Tests’.

“It’s Sanjay Manjrekar’s job to question stuff, so leave him alone,” Srikkanth said in his YouTube channel Cheeky Cheeka. “Questioning KL Rahul’s selection in Tests? He has played well in Tests. I won’t agree at all. Just because Sanjay wants to question something, I don’t think I’ll agree. You shouldn’t question something just to create a controversy. KL Rahul has done brilliantly in all formats. Go through his Test record.”

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It is tough not to agree with Manjrekar though. Since India’s tour of England in mid of 2018, Rahul’s performance in Tests has been under the scanner. After scoring 299 runs in the five-Test series against England, Rahul has managed 37 runs in two Tests against West Indies at home in 2018, 57 runs in three Tests in Australia and 101 runs in two Tests in the Caribbean. Rahul’s last Test for India was in August 2019 before he was dropped from the Test squad for New Zealand earlier this year.

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Srikkanth has his set of views though. “What Sanjay Manjrekar is talking is all rubbish. I’ll not agree,” he said. “Rahul might have been inconsistent but the same KL Rahul made his debut in Australia and made a century. He’s a good player of fast bowling. Let’s understand, he’s a very good player of fast bowling.”

Srikkanth felt Manjrekar needs to think of cricketers who are coming from other parts of the country and not just focus on players from Mumbai.

“Sanjay Manjrekar cannot think beyond Bombay. That’s the problem. We are talking neutral. Manjrekar cannot think beyond Bombay. For people like Manjrekar, everything is Bombay, Bombay and Bombay. They have to think beyond Bombay,” Srikkanth said.