‘We must be humble’: Manjrekar thanks South Africa for exposing India; pinpoints 3 fixes to stay alive

Sanjay Manjrekar isn’t holding back in tearing into team India’s loopholes, exposed by South Africa following a crucial 76-run beating in Ahmedabad in the T20 World Cup Super 8 tie. India suffered its first beating in ICC white-ball events since losing the 2023 ODI World Cup final, and Manjrekar thanked the Proteas for doing so, further suggesting three fixes for the co-hosts to stay alive in the semi-final race.

For India to qualify for the semis, they must win their remaining two matches (against Zimbabwe and the West Indies) comprehensively and hope for other results to fall in their favour, and Manjrekar’s advice might help them.

While his first reaction to India’s shock loss in Ahmedabad saw him pinpoint three specific suggestions, including bringing back wicket-taker Kuldeep Yadav in the playing XI, he expressed in detail significant issues in India’s game play found wanting against a potent title contender, South Africa.

Taking to his X handle, Manjrekar posted, “Thanks to SA, we now know what Ind needs to do next.

1) Get batters with soft skills against spin to bat up the order.
2) Guy doing ‘throw downs’ to throw a million slower balls at Ind batters.☺️
3) Kuldeep must play to have another wicket-taking option.”

What did South Africa do to India?

Even though Pakistan was the highest-ranked team they faced in the group stage, against an actual heavyweight like South Africa, the tournament’s co-hosts fumbled under pressure. Speaking on his Instagram handle, Manjrekar said, “A big defeat to India against South Africa. So, the first strong team that India has played, and they have not really coped well against that team. But the good news is that India is not out of the tournament.”

“So what South Africa have done – and we have to be humble and respect the opposition and in a way thank them – is that they have shown us three areas of improvement that we can still work on and end up getting into the final rounds and hopefully win the title,” he continued.

Manjrekar’s three concerns for India –

“The first area of concern is an obvious one: India is struggling against spin. So how do you solve that? Try to rearrange the batting order in a way that naturally good players of spin are batting up the order, and people like Tilak Varma, who is struggling a little bit, can come down the order,” he said.

Continuing counting issues on fingers, the cricketer-turned-broadcaster added, “The other thing which was glaring in this game against South Africa was even the pace bowlers, when they take the pace off, Indian batters are struggling. The captain seemed like the one who struggled most now when the pace is taken off.”

Although the first two require practice and the right application during games, the third one, as he mentioned, is solvable.

“The third is an easily solvable problem. When the batting is uncertain, not firing, very often you try and get more batting depth. There's another way to cover that weakness, and that is by having a stronger bowling attack. So get Kuldeep Yadav in.”

“So yes, try and make a change that is possible and immediately effective, and then work on the more complex problems… If done quickly, India still have a great chance of getting into the final rounds,” he concluded.