Kuldeep Yadav (R) and Captain Suryakumar Yadav. (NOT a photo) NEW DELHI: India’s heavy defeat by South Africa in the Super Eight stage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup has prompted a blunt reality check, with former batsman Sanjay Manjrekar urging the side to “be humble” and quickly address key flaws to remain in title contention.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SIGN UP NOW!A dominant South Africa piled up 187/7 before bundling India out for just 111. The crushing loss not only dampened India’s momentum but also exposed glaring tactical and technical weaknesses.
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In his Instagram post about the defeat, Manjrekar said: “Big defeat for India against South Africa. So first strong team India played and they didn’t really deal well with this team. But the good news is that India are not out of the tournament.”He added that the loss could serve as a blessing in disguise if India reacts properly.“So what South Africa did – and we have to be humble and respect the opposition and thank them in a way – is they showed us three areas of improvement that we can still work on and ultimately get to the final rounds and hopefully win the title,” he said.Manjrekar identified India’s struggle against spin as the most pressing issue and called for a reshuffle of the batting order.“The first area of concern is obvious: India are struggling with spin. So how do you fix that? Try to change the batting order so that the naturally good spinners are batting down the order and the likes of Tilak Varma, who is struggling a bit, can go down the order,” he said. He also highlighted the team’s vulnerability to fast deliveries, including deliveries from skipper Suryakumar Yadav.“Another thing that was glaring in this match against South Africa was even the pace bowlers, when they ease the pace, the Indian batsmen struggle. The captain seemed to be the one who has the biggest problems now when the pace eases.”Manjrekar further emphasized the need to strengthen the bowling attack rather than adding more batting depth.“The third is an easy problem to solve. When the batting is shaky, it doesn’t fire, very often you try to get more batting depth. There is another way to cover that weakness and that is with a stronger bowling attack. So put Kuldeep Yadav in there.”“So yes, try to make a change that is possible and immediately effective, and then work on the more complex issues… If you do it quickly, India still has a good chance of making it to the final rounds,” he concluded.
